The military conflict between the United States and Iran, now in its seventh month, escalated sharply this week. U.S. Central Command struck Iranian military targets on September 1, following a U.S. attack on IRGC rocket launchers at Larak Island on August 30 and a subsequent widening of the exchange of strikes. Iran retaliated with attacks on U.S.-linked bases in Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq.
The fighting, which began February 28, has centered throughout on control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil once passed daily before Iran began contesting it.
The U.S. imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports on April 13 after talks in Islamabad aimed at ending the conflict collapsed. This was an economic-pressure measure targeting Iran’s trade and oil exports, distinct from the separate military campaign to clear mines and protect third-party shipping in the strait itself. According to CENTCOM’s own accounting, more than 20 warships have redirected 82 commercial vessels since the blockade restarted on July 14.
Yet, despite the presence of U.S. Navy security, on the evening of August 31, two supertankers, the Bahri-operated Sidr and the South Korean-operated Senegal Prosperity, were struck by unidentified projectiles minutes apart. These were the first attacks on commercial shipping there since CENTCOM declared the lanes clear of mines.
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