The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has issued a statement announcing a new wave of strikes against Iran, just a few hours after confirming that it had completed overnight strikes on military targets in the country.
“These strikes are intended to further degrade the military capabilities of Iranian forces that they have used to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” – reads the CENTCOM post on social media platform X, which also states that the strikes were carried out on 15 July at 06:00 Eastern Time.
Earlier, CENTCOM reported the completion of another series of night-time strikes on Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and along the Iranian coast, whilst simultaneously reinstating the naval blockade of vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports.
According to CENTCOM, there are currently more than 20 US Navy warships and hundreds of military aircraft operating in the Middle East.
CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper stated that over the past seven days, Iran had deliberately attacked seven commercial vessels in the region, resulting in nearly a dozen civilian crew members being killed, injured or missing.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to have carried out strikes against US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait, specifically those used by the US Fifth Fleet, whilst the Jordanian Armed Forces reported on 15 July that they had intercepted and shot down three Iranian missiles.