ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US forces have redirected 72 vessels to and from Iranian ports through the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported on Friday, adding that four others have been “disabled” since the onset of maritime restrictions on Iran in mid-April.
“Since the start of the blockade, CENTCOM forces have redirected 72 commercial ships and disabled four,” the Command said in a post on X.
The statement comes amid heightened regional tensions following a wide-scale US-Israeli aerial campaign against Iran launched on February 28, which reportedly struck more than 17,000 sites over six weeks of hostilities. A Pakistan-mediated ceasefire was reached on April 8.
CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper, testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, said that “in just the last 30 months prior to the commencement of [Operation] Epic Fury [against Iran], Iranian-supported terror groups have attacked U.S. troops and diplomats more than 350 times - the equivalent of an attack more than every third day, killing four U.S. service members and wounding nearly 200 more.”
“U.S. Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and I am the 16th CENTCOM commander to deal with the Iranian problem set,” Cooper added, saying that “for 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United States a core tenet of its rule.