The US military claimed that the strikes targeted ‘Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles’ that posed a direct risk to vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz. The Central Command announced the bombings hours after Trump said most US allies had rejected his appeal for naval ships to escort merchant vessels through the strait.
US forces carried out strikes on Iranian missile sites along the country’s southern coastline near the Strait of Hormuz, using multiple 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs to target Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the US Central Command.
“Hours ago, U.S. forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” the military command said in a tweet early Wednesday (IST).
The military claimed that the strikes targeted Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles, which it claimed “posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.”
The Central Command announced the bombings hours after US President Donald Trump said most US allies had rejected his appeal for naval ships to escort merchant vessels through the strait.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would “never” do so until the situation was calmer. “I think Nato is making a very foolish mistake,” Trump told reporters, according to news agency AFP.
“I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not Nato would ever be there for us. So this was a great test,” he added.
But Trump insisted that Washington was ready to go it alone against Iran, saying that even Nato allies had agreed that the Islamic republic needed to be confronted over its nuclear programme. “We don’t need too much help. We don’t need any help,” Trump said.
The strategic waterway, which has been effectively closed since the first week of March in the wake of the ongoing war between Iran and the joint front of Israel and the US, is a vital choke point through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes.
The disruption to movement of merchant ships through the strait has sent fuel prices soaring across the world.
(With inputs from agencies)
