US, Iran, UAE trade Hormuz attack claims: What we know

Tensions in the Gulf have spiralled this week after the United States and Iran both claimed to have fired on and damaged each other’s ships despite a ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran . After US President Donald Trump announced a US plan to “guide” ships stranded in the Gulf out through the Strait of Hormuz in an operation he called Project Freedom , Iran said ships trying to use the strait without permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be fired on, igniting fears of a return to war. Trump did not provide any details about how US forces planned to ensure safe passage for commercial ships. About 2,000 ships are currently stranded on either side of the strait, which has been almost completely closed since the start of the war on February 28. On Monday, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that a US warship that had refused to turn back from the Strait of Hormuz had been hit by two Iranian drones. The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) denied a warship had been hit and conversely claimed it had sunk vessels belonging to the IRGC. Iran, which denied that any IRGC vessels had been hit, issued a map of the strait that showed new boundaries of the area under its control that were farther to the east than before and included the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates, sparking fears of a new regional confrontation. …