Iranian forces have fired more than 300 attacks targeting roughly a dozen nearby countries since the war in the Middle East began more than two weeks ago, according to U.S. Central Command.
In retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli-launched war against it last month, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and thousands of one-way attack drones targeting Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
Despite its attacks — many of which have been intercepted, even though there have also had some deadly successes — Iran’s capabilities continue to be degraded and destroyed under U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
U.S. forces have destroyed more than 100 of the Iranian navy’s vessels, Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, said in a prerecorded video released on Monday morning. American and Israeli forces collectively had hit more than 15,000 targets in Iran, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said last Friday.
“It’s one thing to defend by striking launchers and intercepting missiles and drones, but it’s another thing to eliminate the wider manufacturing apparatus behind them, and we are doing that today,” Cooper said.
In the video, he showed what he described as a “naval drone storage facility” intact on March 1, “located near the Strait of Hormuz,” and then showed a subsequent picture of how that “completely destroyed” facility looked on March 9 after U.S. strikes. Cooper did the same before and after comparison with an “attack drone production factory in Tehran” on March 5, and less than a week later, it was destroyed in a “devastating barrage of U.S. airstrikes.”
The final example Cooper described was a “missile command infrastructure” used to build torpedoes, which U.S. forces have destroyed.
Even as the United States degrades Iran’s military capabilities, it has still been able to largely shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which is a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that is vital for global oil shipping.
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Roughly 20 million barrels of crude oil and other oil products normally pass through the strait daily, equivalent to 20% of global oil demand. Since the war began, traffic has dropped by roughly 97%, according to data compiled by the United Nations.
As the Trump administration tries to navigate the complexities involved with the shutdown of the strait, officials have suggested the military could escort ships through the waterway and provide security for them in the event of an Iranian attack. President Donald Trump has also discussed the possibility of U.S. allies helping in such an effort.
