Tehran, Iran – Iran is claiming success in attacking ships – including US Navy vessels – near the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the strikes have forced Washington to move its warships further from the Iranian coast. It comes as US media reported on Sunday that eight US Marines had suffered from smoke inhalation and potential traumatic brain injuries on September 14 after being targeted by an Iranian antiship cruise missile in the Strait of Hormuz. Al Jazeera reached out to US Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment on the reports, but did not receive a response.
CENTCOM previously said that US vessels had successfully evaded Iranian ballistic missile attacks earlier this month. The US officials quoted in the reports on the injuries to the US Marines said that the vessel they were on when attacked was not a US Navy ship. The Pentagon had earlier quietly added 29 US sailors and eight Marines to its list of war-wounded, increasing the total since the start of the war on February 28 to 861 service members.
At least 19 deaths have been recorded. In recent days, Iranian state-linked media claimed that US warships pulled back earlier this month from their previous line of blockade positions. Previously positioned closer to the Iranian port of Chabahar and the entrance to the Gulf of Oman, the media reports said they had now moved further into the central Arabian Sea, reportedly to avoid Iranian missiles.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appeared to make a reference to US naval movements in the latest message attributed to him published by state media on Monday. US forces are now refraining from advancing further “because of the painful blows they have suffered at the hands of the valiant fighters and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz”, he said. For its part, the US continues to maintain a naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports in some form, while rejecting the Islamic Republic’s latest proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
But with Tehran saying it is ready for both defensive and offensive military action if necessary, analysts believe controlled escalation is expected, even if renewed all-out war is unlikely to be on the immediate horizon. Iran’s authorities are likely to continue targeting ships because the strategy has served Tehran’s aims during the war, said maritime law and security expert Ian Ralby, pointing to the similar success of the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen for nearly three years. Ralby, who is also the president of the good governance nonprofit Auxilium Worldwide, told Al Jazeera that missile and drone strikes have become a means by which a weaker military power can gain a significant strategic advantage and impact global markets.
The escalating rhetoric from Iranian authorities comes as the US military has been able to move considerably more energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks – although the waterway is still far away from its pre-war unimpeded state. Despite the IRGC’s insistence that the strait remains closed to vessels that do not coordinate passage with Iranian authorities, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that nearly 13 million barrels of crude were passing through it each day. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a higher estimate of 15-22 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with roughly 20 million bpd before the war.
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