US strikes launchers on Iran’s Larak Island in first known attack in weeks

Larak Island is just offshore from the key port of Bandar Abbas, and sits right on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran is currently making tanker traffic pass by this island for checking and reportedly forcing vessels to pay $2m (£1.5m) to cross.

Hossein Mohebbi, IRGC’s spokesman called the attack a “strategic and fatal mistake by the Trump regime” and said that the “enemy will pay the consequences of this miscalculation in both the economic and military fields”.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, said earlier that the attack was carried out by drones. Reports indicate that two people were killed and two others injured, it said.

US President Donald Trump ​said last week that all mines‌ had been detonated or removed from the Strait of Hormuz. He said Iran has been warned that any ship ​or boat deploying new mines will be ​destroyed.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi described Trump’s claim as a “propaganda” deception.

Iran is facing renewed US economic pressure after Washington announced a fresh sanctions campaign on 24 August aimed at further isolating Tehran and expanding secondary sanctions against its allies.

Iranian officials and state media have largely dismissed the campaign as a continuation of previous US pressure, which they argue followed Washington’s military failure in the recent conflict.

The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February, with Iran responding by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz. The Iran war has now crossed its six-month mark.

Some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas used to transit the Strait of Hormuz before the war.

In addition to closing the strait, Iran retaliated against Israel and against US bases in the region as well as US Arab allies in the Gulf. The US also announced a raft of economic sanctions against Iran.