Shafaqna Pakistan: The United States and Iran exchanged fresh attacks in the Gulf on Monday (May 4) as tensions escalated over control of the Strait of Hormuz, with competing maritime blockades further straining a fragile truce.
The renewed wave of missiles and drones followed US President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to secure passage for stranded tankers and other vessels through the strait, a critical global energy route that has been largely shut since US and Israeli strikes on Iran began in February, a conflict that has reportedly claimed thousands of lives across the region.
By the end of the day, multiple merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires. The US said it had destroyed six small Iranian military boats, while an oil facility in the UAE—home to a major US military base—was set ablaze after Iranian missile strikes.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that US forces had shot down seven small Iranian boats, describing them as “all they have left.”
Trump gave scant details about his new effort, which he called “Project Freedom”, to help stuck ships to travel through the strait when he announced it on social media, two days after a legal deadline under US law had passed for him to get authorisation from Congress for the war. Trump told Congress the war was “terminated” and the deadline was moot, a claim disputed by some lawmakers.
It was the first apparent attempt to use military force since last month’s ceasefire announcement to unblock the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said can only happen with its permission. The cost of shipping insurance has also rocketed. For weeks, the US Navy has blockaded Iran’s trade by sea, which Iran says is itself an act of war.
But Trump’s latest move, at least initially, appeared to have backfired, bringing no surge of merchant ship traffic while provoking a promised show of force from Iran, which has threatened to respond to any escalation with new attacks on its neighbours hosting US soldiers. Major shipping companies said they were likely to wait for an agreed end to hostilities before trying to cross the strait.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Monday’s events showed there was no military solution to the crisis. He said peace talks were progressing with Pakistan’s mediation while warning the US and the UAE against being drawn into a “quagmire by ill-wishers”.
“Project Freedom is Project Deadlock,” he wrote on social media.
Nonetheless, the US military said two US merchant ships made it through the strait, without saying when, with the support of Navy guided-missile destroyers. While Iran denied any crossings had taken place in recent hours, Maersk said the Alliance Fairfax, a US-flagged ship, exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by the US military on Monday.
The commander of US forces in the region said his fleet had destroyed six small Iranian boats, which Iran also denied. Admiral Brad Cooper said he “strongly advised” Iranian forces to keep clear of US military assets carrying out the mission.
Iranian authorities released a map of what they said was an expanded sea area now under their control, extending far beyond the strait to include long stretches of the UAE’s coastline.
South Korea reported one of its merchant ships, HMM Namu, in the strait suffered an explosion and fire in its engine room, though no one aboard was hurt, and a spokesman said it was unclear if the fire was caused by an attack or originated internally.
Shipper HMM said on Tuesday that the fire on its vessel in the Strait of Hormuz has been extinguished. The ship will be towed to a nearby port in Dubai, the company said, adding no casualties have been reported so far.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported two ships had been hit off the coast of the UAE, and the Emirati oil company ADNOC said one of its empty oil tankers was hit by Iranian drones.
Source: Dunya News
