Iran, US, trade strikes in first fighting in a month

The U.S. military and Iran traded strikes overnight, after American forces hit an island in the Strait of Hormuz. The fighting is the first time the United States has struck Iranian targets since the end of July. 

U.S. forces struck two Iranian launch sites on Larak Island on Sunday, in response to purported preparations to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz. The small island is used by Iranian military forces and ships traveling through the strait on commercial routes pass by the small landmass. Iranian media said that the attack resulted in many fatalities and other casualties.

In a statement posted to social media, U.S. Central Command said that U.S. forces “took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz.”

In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed retaliation and fired drones and missiles at American bases in Jordan.

The IRGC said that it targeted the King Hussein and al-Azraq bases in Jordan, where U.S. troops operate from, and caused significant damage to infrastructure at the two sites. However, Jordan’s military reported it intercepted eight missiles that penetrated its airspace. There are no reported casualties.

The attack and alleged minelaying effort comes only two days after CENTCOM announced that it had disabled or removed all of the mines inside two major international shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz.

On Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization, which monitors traffic and incidents in major commercial shipping lanes, reported that a tanker had been hit by an “unknown projectile” 12 nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman in the strait.

The overnight fighting is the first since the last reported American strike on Iran on July 30. An agreed-upon ceasefire broke down in July, with CENTCOM launching days of attacks on Iranian positions after incidents on the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian strikes killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan, while another American service member died in Iraq while dealing with a crashed Iranian one-way attack drone. 

This is a developing story.