US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Monday announced that American forces had carried out a strike on an Iranian submarine and ship maintenance facility, marking another escalation in the ongoing military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
According to CENTCOM, the operation was conducted on Sunday using multiple unmanned surface drones.
"Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran," the post read.
The latest strike comes as the United States and Iran continue exchanging military attacks. In recent days, US forces have targeted multiple locations inside Iran, while Tehran has launched retaliatory strikes against American military installations across the Middle East, including in Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Oman.
The operation targeted the strategic port of Bandar Abbas, where three Corsair unmanned surface vessels were deployed. CENTCOM said the mission marked the first known combat use of American sea drones.
"Last night's strikes degraded Iran's ability to continue attacking commercial shipping."
The announcement followed another wave of US military operations earlier on Monday, during which American forces said they struck dozens of Iranian targets, including air defence systems, radar installations, missile and drone equipment, as well as small naval vessels.
Hours before CENTCOM's latest statement, US President Donald Trump said, "we're taking over the Strait of Hormuz," a day after declaring that "we bombed the hell out of them."
Trump later expanded on the administration's plans in a post on Truth Social, announcing that the United States would impose a 20 per cent charge on all cargo ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
"The USA will be, from this point forward, known as "THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT," but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World," Trump said, adding that the process to facilitate this will begin immediately.
Rejecting Iranian assertions that the strategic waterway had been closed, Trump stated that "the Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran."
The renewed hostilities have placed the interim agreement reached in June under increasing strain. Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim reported that US strikes in the country's southwestern oil-producing region near the borders with Kuwait and Iraq killed two people on Monday. Separately, Iranian state television reported that its forces fired "warning shots" at two vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest cycle of military action was triggered by an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, setting off another round of retaliatory strikes between the two countries.
