Kanal13The US Central Command announced the destruction of all 11 Iranian warships and vessels in the Gulf of Oman when the US and Israeli operation began on February 28. “Two days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 vessels in the Gulf of Oman; now, there are none,” the command said in a statement.
CENTCOM emphasized that Iran had harassed and attacked international shipping in the area for decades, but that “that time has passed.” The statement included a video showing the strike on one of the Iranian vessels. CENTCOM previously denied Tehran’s claims of a successful strike on a US aircraft carrier. The command noted that the only aircraft carrier hit during the fighting was the Iranian ship Shahid Bagheri, which could house drones.
CENTCOM also reported the sinking of an Iranian Jamaran-class corvette at its pier in Chah Behar in the Gulf of Oman. This information was confirmed by Naval News. US President Donald Trump previously stated that approximately 10 Iranian ships were already “lying on the seabed” and promised to continue strikes against the Iranian fleet. The destruction of Iran’s naval forces was identified as one of the key goals of the US operation, along with the suppression of its missile potential and nuclear program. Amid the escalation in the Middle East, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has banned passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran also continues to attack commercial vessels: on March 2, the Honduran-flagged tanker Athen Nova was hit by two drones, causing a fire on board. The IRGC stated that the vessel acted “in unison with the United States.”
This is the fifth attack on commercial vessels since the start of the US-Israeli military operation. Previously, the Iranian side attacked the US-flagged tankers Stena Imperative, the Marshall Islands-flagged MKD Vyom, the Gibraltar-flagged Hercules Star, and a vessel in the port of Jebel Ali in UAE, which was damaged by falling drone debris.
Recall, one of the objectives, as U.S. President Donald Trump declared in a speech at the White House, is the destruction of Iran’s navy. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also mentioned this goal, which he said would support the overarching objective of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. “This operation has a clear, devastating and decisive mission: to destroy the missile threat, to destroy the navy,” Hegseth said. The announcement of the sinking of 11 vessels comes nearly a day after the U.S. military updated that it had struck an Iranian Jamaran-class corvette that is “now sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Oman.” The American president shared earlier in the day that an Iranian naval headquarters had also been significantly attacked, adding in a jab: “Other than that, they’re doing very well.” The path to eliminating the Iranian navy runs through the ships and submarines deployed in the region, as well as through ports and naval headquarters. This evening, new satellite images were published from the port of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran, showing at least four vessels on fire. One of them is the Makran, which Iran launched in 2021 after converting it from an oil tanker and designating it to allow helicopter landings as a forward naval base.
