US President Donald Trump and his senior aides have been considering launching limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships, three US officials told Axios.
One official said the idea behind the plan is to reduce the risk of Iranian attacks on oil tankers, US Navy ships and Air Force aircraft — to “mow the lawn,” as this person put it.
The plan was developed over the past week by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) and supported by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who sent it to the White House several days ago, US officials said.
The officials said that last week the White House was leaning against approving the strikes to avoid escalating with Iran.
But Iran's ballistic missile attacks on US bases in Jordan on Sunday could change Trump's mind.
A US official told Axios that in recent days Iran launched an anti-aircraft missile toward a US F-35 fighter jet that was providing cover to ships in the strait.
While the missile didn't come close enough to be a threat, it was a signal that Iran is trying to reconstitute its military capacity, according to the US official.
CENTCOM told Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and the White House in recent days that the military might need to strike Iran periodically in order to keep moving dozens of oil tankers out of the Gulf relatively safely every day.
The Axios report came after the US and Iran exchanged attacks in the first flare-up in violence since late July.
US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak Island on Sunday, a US official said, after “Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.”
Three people were killed in the attack, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported. The state-affiliated Nournews said two of them had been identified as members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.
Larak is a small island in the strait near the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles a fifth of global crude oil and gas shipments, has been effectively blocked since the start of the war.
In a statement, the US Central Command said it had taken “limited, precise” action against minelaying forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that posed an “imminent threat” in the strait. It gave no details.
On Monday, Trump told Fox News that the US would hit Iran hard in retaliation for Tehran targeting US forces in Jordan.
“We're going to hit them hard,” Trump said. “There will be a response.”
A senior Iranian source to Reuters, “For every US attack on Iran, Tehran will respond dozens of times more forcefully, and no target in the region is beyond our reach.”
