CENTCOM Says Iran Is Failing to Close the Strait of Hormuz, With About 97% of Ships Getting Through
A Central Command spokesman says about 400 merchant ships transited in a week under U.S. protection, even after an Iranian projectile sank a container ship Wednesday.
The U.S. military says Iran is trying and mostly failing to shut the world's most important oil waterway.
Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told Fox News Digital that the "vast majority" of Iran's attempted attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are "unsuccessful." He said U.S. forces have helped protect thousands of ships, and that "about 97% of the ships that have sought to transit the Strait of Hormuz have done so successfully without being hit by an Iranian projectile."
He spoke after CENTCOM said the GFS Pride, a Singapore-flagged, Cyprus-owned container ship, was hit by an Iranian projectile Wednesday and sank while being towed ashore after a fire.
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a Friday update that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "continually" attacks merchant ships and in many cases kills civilian mariners. He said the International Maritime Organization reports more than 20 civilian mariners killed by Iran's attacks on commercial shipping since February. In the last seven days, he said, about 400 merchant ships sailed through, and U.S. forces helped Gulf partners ship over 100 million barrels of crude, on top of more than 1.3 billion barrels in recent months.
Hawkins described a two-part mission: keep commercial traffic flowing and maintain what he called a "steel wall blockade" against Iran. "There have been no exports or imports to Iran without U.S. permission in the form of allowing humanitarian ships to go through," he said. More than 50,000 U.S. service members are stationed across the Middle East, he said.
All of these figures come from the U.S. military and were not independently checked in Fox's report. The other side has made its own claims: Fox's live coverage says an Iranian army spokesman said Friday that the strait will reopen "if America leaves the region" and that "if it doesn't leave, we'll expel it."
Why it matters at home: the war and the disruption to oil supply are a big reason for the pump prices Americans are paying. Fox ties elevated energy prices to the Iran war in its coverage of the September inflation report.