US strikes Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island after a US official said US forces hit two Iranian launchers there on Sunday. The official said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait of Hormuz, and Iran then answered with missile attacks on US-operated airbases in Jordan.
Donald Trump said last week that “all mines had been detonated or removed from the international waters of the strait of Hormuz” and that “any ship or boat placing new mines would be destroyed.” The exchange returned the conflict to a waterway that, before the fighting, carried about a fifth of the world’s oil barrels consumed.
Larak Island and the Strait of Hormuz
A US official said, “I can confirm that earlier today US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak island.” The same official said, “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait of Hormuz.”
The US said its forces acted to stop Iran from launching more sea mines into the strait of Hormuz. That detail narrows the strike to a specific operational problem: launchers linked to a maritime threat, not a broader attack on Iranian territory.
Jordan airbases under fire
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the US attack killed and wounded several soldiers and citizens, and Iranian state TV said the response would be met with “response and punishment” from Tehran. The IRGC said it targeted technical infrastructure, maintenance facilities, and enemy fighter jet positions at the US-operated King Hussein and al-Azraq airbases in Jordan.
A US source told that all incoming missiles on US forces in Jordan had been intercepted with no significant impact so far. That leaves two different accounts in circulation: Iran’s claim of heavy damage and the US account that the attack on US forces did not cause significant impact.
Trump’s warning and the next step
The timing matters because the war had reached its six-month mark, a ceasefire was agreed in April, and a memorandum of understanding toward a final peace deal was signed in June. The last known US strikes on Iran were in late July, so Sunday’s exchange broke a stretch in which hostilities had been subsiding.
For readers watching shipping through the strait of Hormuz, the practical issue is whether the threats stay limited to launchers and airbases or spread back to maritime traffic. The next move still sits with Tehran after its pledge of “response and punishment,” while Washington has already tied any new mine-laying to destruction.
