Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
Two U.S.-flagged merchant ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said on Monday as Iranian media circulated claims that the country had struck an American warship.
CENTCOM quickly denied reports, stating that no U.S. naval vessels had been struck. The command did not say when the ships passed through the strait.
Tehran earlier said it had forced a U.S. warship to divert away from the strait, Reuters reported, adding that a senior Iranian official said that Iran had fired a warning shot and it was was not clear if that shot damaged the ship.
Two suspected Iranian drones attacked an Emirati vessel attempting to transit the strait, a move the country’s government condemned in a Monday statement.
Meanwhile, Adm. Brad Cooper, the region’s commander, on Monday sought to emphasize that the U.S. has an military advantage in the conflict.
“U.S. forces are helping the international community in restoring the flow of global commerce while the IRGC on the other hand, is doing everything it can to terrorize and threaten commercial shipping,” he said in a media call.
Cooper also said the command had destroyed 6 small Iranian boats. The U.S. used the Navy’s MH-60 Sea Hawk and the Army’s AH-64 Apache helicopters to attack the vessels, CENTCOM said in a statement later in the day.
President Trump on Sunday announced “Project Freedom,” a U.S. effort to guide ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, describing it as a “humanitarian gesture” amid the conflict.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
