CAIRO | Iran said Sunday that it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel attempting to enter the Strait of Hormuz, escalating a confrontation that has increasingly brought military operations into the strategically vital waterway. The United States had not immediately confirmed the Iranian claim, according to The Associated Press.
The reported strike came a day after the U.S. military said it attacked three Iranian oil tankers after Iranian forces targeted U.S. Navy warships with missiles. The latest exchanges mark another sharp escalation in a conflict that has continued despite a ceasefire announced in June.
Fighting between the United States and Iran resumed last week after about a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and communities along Iran’s southern coast again coming under attack. AP reported that at least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment of southern Iran.
The conflict began on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. Subsequent negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program broke down, while the two sides have continued to use military and economic pressure against each other. AP reported that the nuclear issue had been central to negotiations that followed a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran in June.
The Strait of Hormuz is particularly sensitive because it carries a substantial share of the world’s energy supplies. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that oil flows through the strait in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 represented more than one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade and about one-fifth of global oil and petroleum-product consumption. About one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas trade also passed through the waterway in 2024.
The latest confrontation also revives a long history of U.S.-Iran naval tensions in the Gulf. In April 1988, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis after the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine. The operation destroyed or damaged several Iranian naval assets and remains one of the most significant direct U.S.-Iran military encounters at sea.
With military activity again reaching the waters around Hormuz, concerns are mounting over the safety of commercial shipping and the potential impact on global oil and gas markets if the confrontation continues.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
- EDGARDO HERNAL
- EDGARDO HERNAL
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