Updates with details throughout
Iran has fired shots at US naval vessels in the strait of Hormuz and the US destroyed Iranian fast boats on Monday, in the first exchange of fire between the two countries since the ceasefire began on 7 April.
Both countries appear to be gearing up for further escalation around the strait, following the launch of a US military operation — dubbed "Project Freedom" — to facilitate the transit of stranded ships from the Mideast Gulf. But neither Tehran nor Washington pronounced the ceasefire irreversibly broken, despite the attacks.
The US navy has "opened a passage through the strait of Hormuz to allow for the free flow of commerce to proceed," US Central Command (Centcom) chief, Admiral Brad Cooper, told reporters on Monday. US guided-missile destroyers entered the Mideast Gulf through Hormuz on Monday and assisted two US-flagged vessels to exit the Gulf through Hormuz, according to Cooper, who oversees the Middle East-based US military forces.
Iran's military targeted US naval vessels with cruise missiles and launched missiles and drones against commercial ships in Hormuz, Cooper said. "We have defeated each and every one of those threats through the clinical application of defensive munitions," he claimed.
But at least two and possibly three tankers off the UAE coast came under fire and took damage as a result of Iranian drone strikes on Monday, including a South Korean vessel, according to South Korea's foreign ministry and the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency.
The US military has destroyed six Iranian naval boats, Cooper said. The US "shot down" seven Iranian fast boats, according to a social media post by President Donald Trump.
Iran also resumed attacks on the port of Fujairah and other targets in the UAE for the first time in a month. An Iranian drone strike caused a fire in the Fujairah petroleum industries zone, the port authority said. The UAE defense ministry reported three separate waves of Iranian drone and missile strikes on Monday.
Despite reports of Iranian strikes in the UAE, Trump said that "other than the South Korean Ship, there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait."
The attack on Fujairah is a matter of "their national jurisdiction, and not part of our Project Freedom operation," Cooper said. "The UAE has exceptional capability. They're well-positioned to defend themselves."
Iran warned that any vessels violating its naval protocols would be "stopped by force", according to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) linked Tasnim news agency.
