Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, ending a month-long lull in direct military action in a conflict that has continued intermittently for more than six months. Iran quickly vowed to retaliate, calling the strike a deadly attack.
The move marks a fresh escalation in a region already on edge, with the waterway remaining central to the conflict. The latest action came days after the Trump administration had said it would focus on increasing economic pressure on Tehran rather than taking further military action.
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According to Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US Central Command, forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps were seen preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the strait. He said the US military had completed operations last week to clear sea mines from international shipping routes in the waterway. Semiofficial news outlets in Iran reported sounds of explosions near Larak island, while the Guard said in a statement carried by state media that there had been “the martyrdom and injury of several of our fighters and compatriots”.
A return to open conflict would raise fresh risks across the region, where Iran has targeted US military bases and infrastructure in Gulf countries since the war began on February 28. The last confirmed US strike on Iran was on July 29, when the military announced a “heavy wave of strikes” on dozens of Revolutionary Guard targets, including coastal surveillance and defence sites. On August 1, President Donald Trump said he would pause new strikes after appeals from Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Sunday’s strike came even as Washington had said it would try to push Tehran by tightening sanctions and threatening action against countries and entities that continue doing business with Iran. A Guard spokesperson, Gen. Hossein Mohebi, said in a statement carried by Iranian media that the attack was a “fatal mistake by the Trump regime during the economic war” and that “the enemy will pay the consequences militarily and economically”. The US shift towards sanctions has also come as the administration weighs concerns over reduced munitions stockpiles after months of war and the effect that could have on military readiness elsewhere.
Trump said last week that he was “not in a hurry” to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, while continuing to argue that the country’s leadership is under severe pressure. At the same time, recent appointments to Iran’s senior security leadership have signalled defiance in Tehran, along with a hard line against dissent at home. Trump has repeatedly said the US and Israeli campaign has badly damaged Iran’s navy and air force. Iranian officials have said the country has suffered USD 270 billion in direct and indirect losses, and Israeli strikes in the first weeks of the war wiped out much of the leadership structure.
Iran has continued to use the Strait of Hormuz as a point of leverage. Few ships carrying oil and liquefied natural gas are now risking the passage, and Iran is still believed to have enough drones and missiles to target vessels in the waterway, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil normally flows. Tehran has also maintained that even after working out a management plan for the strait with Oman, the US cannot use it until it meets obligations under a memorandum of understanding signed in mid-June.
Trump has repeatedly said that the “Strait of Hormuz is open” and noted that 24 vessels passed through last week, but that remains far below the roughly 130 ships that used the route daily before the war. Earlier on Sunday, a multinational coalition overseen by the US Navy said commercial traffic through the strait was still at “reduced levels”. A British military-run monitoring agency also said an unknown projectile hit a tanker on Saturday north of Khasab, Oman, in the strait. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said there were no casualties or environmental damage, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. The US military said that by Sunday it had redirected 83 commercial vessels and disabled three under its blockade of Iranian ports, underlining the continuing strain on shipping through the region.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
