{"id":437148,"date":"2026-08-31T02:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T19:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/u-s-forces-have-struck-two-iranian-launchers-near-strait-of-hormuz-437148\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T02:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T19:40:19","slug":"u-s-forces-have-struck-two-iranian-launchers-near-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/u-s-forces-have-struck-two-iranian-launchers-near-strait-of-hormuz-437148\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. forces have struck two Iranian launchers near Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Axios with the report that U.S. forces have struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. <\/p>\n<p>Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>Axios cited a US official statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier over the weekend,\u00a0UKMTO reported an incident 12NM north of Khasab, Oman, that s\u00a0tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile whilst transiting inbound in the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Any resumption of direct US strikes on Iranian territory near the Strait of Hormuz revives the risk premium that has underpinned oil markets since the conflict began in February. Brent had been easing toward the mid-eighties on hopes that Oman-brokered talks might open a temporary shipping corridor, so a strike aimed at preventing fresh mine-laying will likely halt or reverse that slide. Traders will watch for confirmation of the target and casualty figures, given that Tehran has previously restricted domestic reporting on strike damage. A verified attempt by Iranian forces to seed the strait with sea mines would itself be bullish for prices independent of the US response, since it threatens the narrow shipping lanes that carrier groups have spent months trying to keep clear. Freight and insurance costs for tankers transiting Hormuz remain elevated and are likely to stay that way while incidents of this kind continue.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Summary:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>A US official told Axios that American forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island in Hormozgan province.<\/li>\n<li>The launchers were reportedly being prepared by IRGC-N forces to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.<\/li>\n<li>Initial reports describe the strike as a drone attack; unconfirmed local sources cite two killed and two injured.<\/li>\n<li>Iranian authorities have not officially confirmed the casualty figures.<\/li>\n<li>Iran&#8217;s Fars news agency separately reported an explosion heard near Larak Island on Sunday, with the cause unstated at the time.<\/li>\n<li>The incident comes as the US-Iran conflict passed its six-month mark this week, with Hormuz shipping still running well below pre-war volumes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nUS forces struck two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy missile launchers on Larak Island on Sunday after they were observed preparing to fire rockets fitted with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, a US official told Axios. Initial reports describe the action as a drone strike, and unconfirmed local accounts put the toll at two killed and two injured, though Iranian authorities have not confirmed casualty figures. Iran&#8217;s Fars news agency had earlier reported that an explosion was heard near the island on Sunday, with the cause unclear at the time of that report.\n<\/p>\n<p>Larak sits at the narrowest and most heavily militarized stretch of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that before the war carried roughly a fifth of the world&#8217;s seaborne oil trade. A US official separately told the Jerusalem Post that the strike marked the first US action against Iran in several weeks, a lull that had coincided with intensifying diplomacy over the strait&#8217;s reopening. The Jerusalem Post\n<\/p>\n<p>That diplomatic track has centred on Oman, which along with Iran has been working on a proposal for a temporary shipping route through Hormuz, an effort Qatar has publicly backed as a path back to broader negotiations. US Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper said last week that American forces had cleared sea mines from the strait&#8217;s international shipping lanes and had overseen the passage of some 1,500 commercial vessels carrying 750 million barrels of crude since the blockade began, while also turning back or disabling vessels attempting to run it. Despite that, the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre has continued to log attacks on shipping, including a tanker struck by an unidentified projectile in the strait last week, and rates the risk to vessels transiting Hormuz as severe.<br \/>\nIf confirmed, Sunday&#8217;s strike suggests Iranian forces were attempting to reintroduce sea mines into the waterway even as the Oman-mediated route proposal was being floated, a move that would materially complicate any near-term reopening. The conflict, now six months old, has already cost the US military tens of billions of dollars and left shipping volumes through Hormuz at a fraction of pre-war levels, with further clarity on both the strike and Iran&#8217;s mining intentions likely to shape whether the current fragile diplomatic window stays open.<\/p>\n<p>                            This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Axios with the report that U.S. forces have struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}