Six months ago today, the United States and Israel launched their first strikes of on Iran, assassinating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran and hitting nuclear and military sites around the country. Those attacks prompted Iran to begin strikes on US military assets and infrastructure in Gulf countries – and for the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, to fire rockets into northern Israel, prompting near-daily Israeli responses since then and, at one point, control over one-fifth of Lebanon. Neither side has gained the upper hand since.
Iran has used its control of the Strait of Hormuz to squeeze Washington and global energy markets, and the conflict has settled into a stalemate, which months of negotiation have not broken. Al Jazeera tracks the first six months of the war, from the numbers killed and displaced to the shock suffered by the global economy. According to the latest official figures, at least 4,350 people are confirmed killed in Lebanon, 3,527 in Iran and 28 in Gulf states since the war began on February 28.
A further 60 Israelis and 18 US service members have been killed in Iranian attacks. The Pentagon says 757 US personnel have been wounded. Figures are compiled from national health ministries and official bodies, and may change as the situation evolves and more information becomes available.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), a US-based conflict monitoring group, the US and Israel have carried out at least 3,580 attacks on Iran since February 28. Over the same period, Iran carried out at least 2,053 attacks across the Gulf and the wider Middle East. Before the war, at least 100 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day, more than half of them tankers, carrying tens of millions of barrels of oil, as well as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other petrochemicals.
That collapsed within days of the war beginning. After the IRGC announced the strait’s closure on March 2, traffic fell to an average of five vessels a day and stayed there through the April ceasefire and the US blockade of Iranian ports. The June 17 interim agreement increased the daily average to 20, but still only one-fifth of normal traffic, before the US resumed its blockade on July 14 and traffic sank back to five per day.
In the six months since fighting began, an average of seven vessels a day have passed through the strait. Attacks on dozens of vessels have also been responsible for the decrease in shipping. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), there have been 70 confirmed incidents involving ships in the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in 19 seafarer fatalities as of August 26.
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