US Strikes Iranian Boats, Missile Launch Sites In 'Self Defense,' Says CENTCOM

TEHRAN — In what military officials are calling a masterclass in "measured restraint," the United States launched pinpoint strikes on Iranian boats and missile sites Tuesday, proving once again that nothing says "ongoing ceasefire" quite like explosions, shock and awe, and sinking vessels.

"US Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire," CENTCOM spokesperson Navy Captain Tim Hawkins said regarding the strikes.The US military carried out self-defense strikes in southern Iran against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, Fox News reported on Tuesday.

“US forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said.

“US Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” he added.

According to reports, two Iranian boats were spotted laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, an act of aggression so shocking it only took the U.S. military a few hours to respond with overwhelming firepower. Forces also responded after a missile site had targeted US warplanes, said the official.

He also confirmed that the US struck a surface-to-air missile (SAM) site in Bandar Abbas, following reports of explosions in the city by Iranian media. Other explosions were reported close to Sirik and Jask, located near the strait, in what Iranian state media described as "totally normal Tuesday activities."

The official told Fox News that the strikes were "defensive," while two additional sources said that the strikes do not indicate that the ceasefire with Iran is over. Because nothing screams "ceasefire" like U.S. jets turning missile sites into parking lots.

Explosions were heard on Monday in various regions across the Strait of Hormuz, according to Fox. The official said that the US strikes were "over for now," which is Pentagon-speak for "until the next time they look at us funny."

At press time, Iran was reportedly considering a strongly-worded statement, while the U.S. Navy practiced its trademark "restraint" by not turning the entire region into a smoking crater.

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US hits Qeshm Port, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Kargan

A U.S. strike hit Iran's Qeshm Port in the Strait of Hormuz and Bandar Abbas on Thursday. U.S. officials told Fox News that the action was neither a restart of the war nor an end to the ceasefire.

The U.S. military also took out Iran's Bandar Kargan naval checkpoint in Minab, officials confirmed.

This all unfolded as Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported air defense activity in western Tehran. Eyewitnesses told Iran International they heard two other loud explosions that night, along with multiple blasts in Chitgar. 

Iran's state-run Mehr News Agency reported attacks and exchanges of fire across the southern Hormozgan province near Bandar Abbas, Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island.

Thursday's strike on Iran's major port came just two days after Iran launched 15 ballistic and cruise missiles at the UAE's Fujairah Port. Those strikes sparked real anger among Gulf countries, officials told Griffin. Yet Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine had insisted during a Pentagon briefing on May 5 that the attacks did not violate the ceasefire. They called them low-level incidents that did not cross the threshold.

President Trump had paused Project Freedom on May 5. That operation aimed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and guide ships through the critical waterway after he announced it on May 3.

A senior U.S. official confirmed Thursday that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were "very angry at the reaction from the Pentagon" and had temporarily halted permission for the U.S. to use their bases and airspace for Project Freedom. The decision has since been reversed, the official said.

The Thursday U.S. strikes came as Washington waited for Iran's response to a U.S. proposal.

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And another one bites the dust

The late, not great, Alireza Tangsiri

There have been loads of eliminations by the IDF of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, Basij leaders, nuclear scientists, heads of the air force, ballistic missile scientists, government spokesmen, and many others. 

Well now, the long list recently got longer by one additional scumcrumpet with the announcement by Israel that it had removed IRGC naval commander, Alireza Tangsiri, from the game of life. Tangsiri was the guy who organized the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and now he is with his virgin Capra aegagrus hircuses.

The IAF strike killed Tangsiri in Bandar Abbas, adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz. The IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed it after an Israeli official informed The Jerusalem Post earlier on Thursday.

Israeli defense sources have confirmed to the New York Post that the strike that killed Tangsiri took place early Thursday morning at 3 a.m. local time. The sources said that a number of Tangsiri’s top naval aides were killed in the same attack.

In a video statement issued on Thursday, the prime minister said Tangsiri had “a great deal of blood on his hands” and was the person “who led the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.” . . . Tangsiri was widely seen as taking an increasingly aggressive stance in recent weeks on Iran’s actions in the Gulf, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, but now his stance is forever prone.

Last week he threatened retaliation against US facilities in the region, warning civilians and workers to stay away. 

“Our list of targets is updated. Oil facilities associated with America are now on par with American bases and will come under fire with full force,” Tangsiri said at the time, before being blown into fish chum.

Scary stuff, no? Too bad that Admiral Tangsiri couldn’t be around to see how even more of his ships, now amounting to more than 100, and among them 92 percent of Iran’s largest warships, are now at the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

After Israel’s first main attack on Iran on October 26, 2024, when the IDF destroyed almost all of Iran’s air defenses, the Iranians promised a terrible revenge. Like the Monty Python Black Knight's call for retaliation, it never came. 

Then the Iranian regime rolled their shoulders, grabbed their crotches and threatened that if Israel launches any further attack on their country they would “wipe Israel off the face of the earth forever.” All bluster.

Why wait for another attack by Israel? Wasn’t that 12-day aggression by the Jewish state enough to justify an Iranian response that would end the Jewish state’s existence? If Iran was so all-powerful, why did it refrain from responding to that Israeli attack? 

The IRGC has its excuse: according to its version of events, Iran delivered a terrific blow against Israel in that war and has no need to respond further unless of course the Israelis were foolish enough to attack Iran again. Then Iran would not only repeat its previous “victory” but would wipe Israel “off the face of the Earth.” 

Yet another attack came and Am Yisrael Chai, baby. 

And now Alireza Tangsiri, author of yet more threats on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is dead.

Alireza Tangsiri did his best for his home team, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was the naval mastermind who carried out the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, directed maritime attacks on civilian structures and military targets in the Gulf Arab states, and supported the Houthis with intelligence that will be wasted on that group of cretins.

Who’s next on the IDF’s To-Do List?

The crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, has his own sources of information inside Iran. Many Iranians are fed up with the regime and have been for decades.

They have seen the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the nuclear program go up in smoke. The tens of billions of dollars that Iran has spent on supporting its proxies with weaponry and money, especially Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have similarly evanesced as a result of Israeli attack.

Finally, the crushing blow delivered by the IDF to Iran, and then the further damage done by the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, have so demoralized many members of the IRGC that some of them now want out. Also, not getting paid for their terrorism doesn't help the morale very much either.

They can no longer support a regime that has destroyed the country’s economy, with more than 30 percent of Iranians now living below the poverty line, that crushes peaceful dissent, and has misspent hundreds of billions of dollars both on failing proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah) and on a nuclear program that has just been demolished.

They sense the regime is crumbling and want to get out while there is still time.

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Humongous blast at Iran's key port kills 8 injures over 750

The world woke to yet another grim spectacle from the Islamic Republic of Iran, where a colossal explosion at Shahid Rajaee, the nation’s largest commercial port near Bandar Abbas, has left at least eight dead and 750 wounded. 

This is no mere industrial screwup; it is a blazing emblem of Iran’s reckless priorities, its flirtation with catastrophe laid bare on Saturday morning.

The blast, which shattered windows, obliterated roofs, and reduced cars to smouldering husks, was felt 50km away—an apocalyptic tremor through the earth. 

Videos, verified by the BBC, capture the grotesque ballet: a fire swelling with malevolent intent, then a monstrous detonation. People flee, others lie broken amid smoking wreckage, the air thick with chaos. Aerial footage reveals at least three infernos raging, as Iran’s interior minister later confirmed the fire leapt from one container to another like a predator unbound.

“Still trapped under collapsed roofs and we are trying to rescue them,” one official told local media, per BBC Persian—a desperate admission of the human toll. The highways, littered with debris and rubble, resemble a war zone, not a hub of commerce. 

Shahid Rajaee, Iran’s most advanced terminal, sits on the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for global oil. This is no backwater; it is a geopolitical nerve centre, 20km from Bandar Abbas, home to the Iranian Navy’s main base.

What caused this disaster? The answer, as ever with Iran, is a cocktail of incompetence and menace. Ambrey Intelligence, a private maritime risk firm, points to “improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles.” They note an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025.” 

The Financial Times had already reported two vessels ferrying fuel from China to Iran. State media, scrambling for a less damning narrative, quoted witnesses claiming the explosion followed a fire that spread to unsealed containers of “flammable materials.” Customs officials, via state TV, suggested a fire in a hazmat and chemical storage depot was the likely culprit. 

Ambrey later cited Iran’s National Disaster Management Organization, which revealed that officials had previously warned Shahid Rajaee about the safe storage of chemicals. Warnings, it seems, were as effective as whispers in a storm.

This is not a mere logistical failure; it is a window into Iran’s soul. A regime that prioritizes ballistic missiles over the safety of its people, that allows rocket fuel to be mishandled in its premier port, is not a state seeking stability. It is a state playing with fire—quite literally. 

The explosion’s timing, as Iranian and US officials met in Oman for a third round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, is a stark reminder of the stakes. While President Trump’s administration seeks a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief, Tehran’s actions scream defiance. The Iranian National Oil Production Company’s claim that the blast had “no connection” to its refineries or pipelines feels like a hollow deflection, a regime clutching at straws.

President Masoud Pezeshkian’s “deep regret and sympathy” for the victims rings as sincere as a crocodile’s tears. His promised investigation, led by the interior minister, is less about truth than containment. Iran’s history of obfuscation suggests we will learn only what the regime permits. Yet the facts are stubborn: a port critical to global trade, a stockpile of missile fuel, a fire that should never have started, and a blast that could not be contained. This is Iran’s governance in microcosm—hubris dressed as competence, danger masquerading as progress.

The world watches, and the question lingers: how many more explosions, literal or figurative, will it take before Iran’s recklessness is confronted? For now, the wounded lie in Bandar Abbas, the fires burn, and the regime marches on, undeterred by the wreckage it leaves behind.

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