The U.S. military dropped multiple 5,000-pound deep-penetrator bombs on “hardened” Iranian anti-ship missile sites on Tuesday along the country’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait,” the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said.
The employment of the munitions, known as Coastal Defense Cruise Missiles, comes as the Iranian military has attacked ships in the strait, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, previously said the strait would remain closed off in response to the airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel, a joint operation that kicked off on Feb. 28.
Since the war began, gas prices have gone up in the U.S. and around the world due to disruptions in oil markets.
Amid ongoing disruptions to maritime shipping in the Middle East due to the closure of the...
