US hits Iranian rocket launchers off the Strait of Hormuz in first new attack in weeks

The U.S. military attacked Iranian rocket launchers positioned in the Strait of Hormuz, marking its first offensive operation in a month, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday.Explosions were heard near Larak Island, which lies in the waterway, Iranian media outlets reported.Iranian forces had been preparing to launch rockets carrying mines into the strait, the unnamed U.S. official said. The waterway, a vital trade route, has emerged as a major flash point in the war.Last week, the U.S. completed an operation to clear mines from strait’s shipping lanes. Following the operation, President Donald Trump warned Iran that “any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed.”In response to the new offensive, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that the U.S. attack “will be answered by the sons of Iran and will result in the punishment of the aggressor,” Axios reported.The US military attacked Iranian rocket launchers positioned in the Strait of Hormuz, marking its first offensive operation in a month, a US official told The Associated Press on Sunday (Getty Images)When reached for comment, a Pentagon spokesperson referred The Independent to U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East.The war, which began in February when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, had largely settled into a stalemate in recent weeks with no clear end in sight. The strait, which carried about 20 percent of the world’s oil before the conflict, has remained a central obstacle. The U.S. insists it must remain open to unrestricted shipping, while Iran says it has the right to manage traffic through the waterway.Eighteen US service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the conflict, the Pentagon has said (AFP via Getty Images)In recent months, the Trump administration has maintained that Iran’s military and leadership have been severely weakened.“We’ve wiped them out militarily,” Trump said in an interview earlier this month. “The navy’s gone, the air force is gone, the leadership is gone.” He said the deaths of Iranian leaders had also complicated diplomacy because “nobody knows who’s leading.”Thousands of U.S. strikes have been carried out across the country, sometimes continuing night after night. In Iran, 3,375 people have died and more than 30,000 have been injured, according to the World Health Organization.The conflict has also taken a significant toll on the United States.Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the conflict, the Pentagon has said. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress that the war had cost $37.5 billion. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also driven up fuel prices.Multiple recent polls indicate the war is broadly unpopular in the U.S. In a Reuters survey last month, 69 percent of respondents said that Trump has not clearly explained the goals of the conflict.