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The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy fired warning shots using missiles and drones toward United States Navy destroyers operating in the Sea of Oman, forcing them to withdraw from the area, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army announced on June 5.
In a statement, the army’s public relations office said the attack was part of ongoing operations carried out in response to what it described as U.S. harassment at sea and the seizure of Iranian commercial and oil tankers.
Iranian naval forces fired warning shots using Qadir anti-ship cruise missiles and Shahed Danesh one-way attack drones toward the USS Truxtun and USS Mason Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, according to the army, which claimed that the warships subsequently left the Sea of Oman and headed toward the Indian Ocean.
The Qadir is an upgraded version of the Noor, which is an Iranian copy of the Chinese C-802. The sneak-skimming cruise missile, which is equipped with an active radar seeker, has a range of 300 kilometers and carries a warhead weighing 200 kg.
On the other hand, the Shahed Danesh used in the attack appears to be a completely new Iranian type of jet-powered one-way attack drones.
The army’s statement added that the operation, along with similar actions in recent days, also compelled other U.S. warships to leave the area, including destroyers operating as part of the USS George H.W. Bush carrier strike group and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli.
The U.S. Navy was also accused of disrupting maritime trade and security by the army, which said that the targeted destroyers served as a command-and-control center for what it described as hostile American activities against Iranian commercial shipping in the region.
Although the U.S. warships had moved beyond the range of the missiles used in the warning operation, the army warned in the statement that Iranian forces could employ longer-range weapons if necessary.
The statement was released right after the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command announced that its forces had carried out what was described as a “maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the sanctioned stateless supertanker Davina in the Indian Ocean.
In a post to X, the command said that the U.S. Navy “will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.”
Iran and the U.S. exchanged fire more than once in recent weeks. In fact, just a day earlier, the Islamic Republic announced a similar attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Oman.
This escalation comes despite recent reports of progress in talks on a memorandum of understanding to end the war. While the recent clashes may be a form of negotiations by fire, the threat of the war resuming is, without a doubt, increasing with each incident.
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