The U.S. military said two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers had entered the Gulf to break an Iranian blockade and that two U.S. merchant ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran
The U.S. military said two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers had entered the Gulf to break an Iranian blockade and that two U.S. merchant ships had transited the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran said it had prevented a U.S. warship entering the Gulf.
U.S. Central Command said its forces were supporting President Donald Trump's "Project Freedom", which aims to "guide out" commercial ships stranded in the Gulf by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and were enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports.
The intervention appeared to raise the risk of a direct confrontation between the U.S. and Iran in a waterway that usually carries a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas but has been blocked for two months as a result of the war.
CENTCOM said two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had crossed through the strait as the U.S. destroyers operated in the Gulf, adding: "American forces are actively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping."
Earlier, Tehran said it had forced a U.S. warship to turn back from the Strait of Hormuz, although CENTCOM quickly denied a report by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency that two missiles had hit the ship near the Iranian port of Jask.
A senior
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