Brad Cooper says Iranian naval forces have disappeared from Hormuz
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Voice of America
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of the US Central Command, says he has not observed Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz. He attributes their absence to US strikes that destroyed Iran’s navy, according to a video published by CENTCOM on Friday.
Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, the US military command for the Middle East, says naval forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have disappeared from the Strait of Hormuz, where they had previously been almost constantly present. He attributed this to US strikes that reportedly sank Iranian navy vessels, in a video published on Friday by CENTCOM and reported by Voice of America.
More than 10,000 US soldiers are taking part in the naval blockade of Iranian ports and oil terminals, according to CENTCOM. Brad Cooper said he had seen dozens of commercial vessels carrying goods, crude oil and liquefied natural gas in particular, as well as US military assets in the air and at sea.
The Iranian navy nevertheless warned commercial vessels that the southern route along the Omani coast was ‘contaminated with mines’ and threatened to hold their owners and crews responsible for using it, according to Iranian state media. Iran’s official agency also claimed that two oil tankers had struck mines and that a US navy vessel had been destroyed, while CENTCOM denied the destruction of a US naval drone and said all its unmanned surface vessels had been accounted for.
The announcement comes after explosions set three oil tankers ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz on 29 October and the US strike on a missile launcher on Iran’s Qeshm island, reported on 30 October. The British maritime security organisation UKMTO also reported on Friday that a vessel had been hit by an unidentified projectile 40 nautical miles south of the Iranian island of Lavan, with no casualties among the crew and no reported pollution.
