The United States shot down multiple Iranian missiles and drones fired at US Navy and commercial vessels and destroyed six of Tehran’s small boats, a top US admiral said on Monday.
The hostilities occurred as American forces seek to facilitate the transit of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in an effort dubbed “Project Freedom” that President Donald Trump announced on Sunday.
US Apache and Seahawk helicopters hit “six Iranian small boats threatening commercial shipping,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), told journalists.
US forces also “effectively engaged” all “missiles and drones that were fired at both us and the commercial ships,” Cooper said.
Some cruise missiles were launched at US Navy ships but most of them as well as multiple drones targeted commercial vessels, he said.
“We defended both ourselves and, consistent with our commitment, we defended all the commercial ships,” Cooper said.
In a post on his Truth Social Platform, Trump put the number of Iranian boats struck at seven and said “there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait” aside from a South Korean ship that was hit, about which he provided no further details.
Iranian state television meanwhile quoted a senior military official from the country as saying: “The US claim that it sank a number of Iranian war boats is false.”
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