U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers Sunday after the military observed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Tehran to vow retaliation in the first known American strike inside Iran since late July.
The launchers were struck on Larak Island, an Iranian island near the strategic waterway, according to U.S. officials who confirmed the operation to multiple media outlets.
“Earlier today U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz,” one U.S. official said.
American forces are closely monitoring the area and remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through the strait, the official added.
The IRGC acknowledged the attack shortly afterward, saying Iranian forces and civilians were killed or wounded and vowing to punish those responsible. Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Guards, cited preliminary, unofficial reports that two people were killed and two others wounded.
“The terrorist enemy’s aggression on Larak Island will be met with punishment for the aggressor,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi escalated the threat, calling the strike a “strategic and fatal error” by the Trump administration that would carry “severe repercussions.”
“The adversary will face the ramifications of this faulty calculus across both the economic and military arenas,” Mohebi said.
Iranian officials issued additional threats in the hours after the attack, warning that the U.S. response would be met with a more painful retaliation.
“Undoubtedly, no crime, at any level, goes unanswered; a response that is devastating, more painful, and instructive, which will complete the chain of your failures,” Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi warned. “Wait in fear and terror!”
A spokesman for Iran’s armed forces separately declared that Tehran’s response to the attack would be “definitive.”
Sunday’s strike came days after President Donald Trump specifically warned Iran against attempting to place new mines in Hormuz after U.S. forces cleared Iranian mines from the strait’s international shipping lanes.
Writing on Truth Social last week, Trump announced that the U.S. Navy had removed or detonated the mines in international waters before warning Tehran: “Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed.”
The president said U.S. forces were monitoring “every square inch” of the strait and declared a “Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect.”
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Thursday that American forces had cleared Iranian sea mines from the internationally recognized Traffic Separation Scheme through Hormuz, a development the command described as a watershed moment in its months-long effort to restore freedom of navigation through the waterway.
CENTCOM said the shipping lanes were “free of Iranian sea mines” following an operation involving Navy divers, SEALs and U.S. airpower.
“International shipping lanes are open and momentum is building,” CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said.
The operation followed months of Iranian efforts to restrict commercial shipping through Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments passed before the war.
The U.S. has meanwhile continued enforcing its naval blockade of Iran while allowing commercial traffic from other Gulf states to move through the waterway.
In an update issued after reports of Sunday’s strike emerged, CENTCOM said its forces had now redirected 83 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two to ensure compliance with the blockade. The command accompanied the figures with an image of a U.S. sailor directing an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter aboard the USS Delbert D. Black as the guided-missile destroyer sailed in the Arabian Sea enforcing the blockade.
The update came two days after Trump declared the Strait of Hormuz open, saying Friday of the strategic waterway: “That sucker is open.”
Iran, however, has continued to insist the strait remains closed and that vessels cannot pass without Tehran’s authorization.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said over the weekend that Tehran considers itself to remain at war and would not reopen Hormuz until the United States fulfills what Iran considers its commitments under an earlier memorandum of understanding.
“The Strait of Hormuz is closed,” Gharibabadi said, while also warning that Iran could act militarily before coming under attack.
“Why should we always wait for America to attack?” he asked. “We can take preemptive action.”
The Trump administration paused its last sustained campaign of strikes inside Iran in late July after two weeks of U.S. military operations, shifting much of its pressure campaign toward the naval blockade and an escalating effort to economically isolate Tehran.
Sunday’s attack marked the first known U.S. strike inside Iran since that pause — and came just days after Trump warned that any renewed attempt to mine the Strait of Hormuz would be met with immediate U.S. military action.
The IRGC gave no indication Sunday of when or how it intended to carry out its threatened response.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.