U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed as many as nine Iranian Navy ships have been sunk in Operation Epic Fury, America’s bid to topple the Iranian regime.
In a post on social media platform X, he wrote: “I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important.”
He also claimed the regime’s naval headquarters had been “largely destroyed” in a separate attack. Earlier, a statement from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) had confirmed its forces had sunk an Iranian corvette in the opening exchanges.
Few further details about the nine vessels have been released, though as per media reports they are thought to include at least two frigates; satellite imagery has shown an Iranian warship burning while moored at a pier at Konarak Naval Base in Chabahar.
This tallies with the earlier CENTCOM press statement, which said the Jamaran-class corvette was sunk while it was moored at a pier at the base, which lies on Iran’s Gulf of Oman coastline.
It’s not clear how the ship was targeted, but America has confirmed it is using a variety of strike platforms in the operation, which is being prosecuted in tandem with Israel.
Maritime assets in play include U.S. guided-missile destroyers, which have been launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford, launching aircraft from the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Arabian Sea.
The Pentagon has denied claims by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that the latter carrier had been struck by ballistic missiles, stating that the missiles “didn’t even come close.”
America claims to be targeting exclusively military installations, including command and control (C2) centres, the IRGC’s Joint Headquarters and Aerospace Forces Headquarters, air defence systems, ballistic missile and anti-ship missile installations, and Iranian Navy ships and submarines.
Missiles and drones fired in reprisals by Iran have struck military and civilian sites in a number of Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Iraq, Israel and Qatar. A drone strike has been reported at the British RAF base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, but there were no casualties.
As per a statement from British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the U.K. is not participating in the strikes, though it has not publicly criticised them either.
However, British jets have been flying “as part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes.” And the U.K. is allowing the U.S. to use British bases for “defensive strikes” aimed at preventing retaliatory attacks.
- You can check the latest Operation Epic Fury updates online via CENTOM’s X account