WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it opened fire and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week that were trying to steal a drone ship in the waters off Iran, the latest back-and-forth fire in the stalemated war.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the Iranian boats “recently attempted to take possession of a U.S. unmanned surface vessel" but failed after the military "forcefully responded."
Iranian state media
reported Monday that a pair of fishing boats came under attack in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast and that several fishermen were reported missing, citing a provincial official.
It is the latest volley of fire in the more than 6-month-old war as both sides seek control over the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. has succeeded in recent weeks in loosening Iran’s grip over the critical energy shipping corridor. But the impact of the unpopular conflict has driven up the cost of oil and gasoline prices, posing political problems for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party ahead of November's congressional midterm elections.
“Oil will drop like a rock as soon as the Military Conflict with Iran is over, and that will not be long,” Trump asserted in a social media post Monday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called the foreign minister of Oman to discuss the Gulf Arab country’s efforts to deescalate tensions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the State Department said.
Global oil markets have been further roiled by increased attacks from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen against Saudi Arabia's shipping and infrastructure.
The new front in the Middle East conflict has cut off or hindered alternate routes for Saudi Arabia to get its oil to the world, including an attack days ago that damaged its biggest pipeline and advances that strengthened the Houthis' ability to choke off Saudi oil exports out of the Red Sea.
Besides the hit to the global economy, new reports out of Washington have detailed the U.S. costs for the war against Iran, the reduction to stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, and the damage that has been inflicted on American aircraft, bases and diplomatic outposts.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the war has cost the Pentagon more than $38 billion through Aug. 1 and will cost up to $3 billion a month or more depending on the intensity of the conflict. That figure largely aligns with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Congress that the fighting has cost so far.
The CBO said the war is expected to contribute to inflation into the first quarter of next year.
Iranian strikes also have damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at U.S. bases in the Middle East as well as dozens of American aircraft and drones, according to a report from the Pentagon inspector general released Monday.
Hawkins said Tuesday the sea drone involved in the latest clash is a “Saildrone” — a small, roughly 25-foot (8-meter) craft — which can operate by itself. U.S. Central Command has been using them in the region for several years to surveil maritime traffic.
Hawkins said all of the command’s surface drones “remain fully accounted for.” The military has long asserted that the technology on the Saildrones is commercially available and not sensitive in nature.
Ahmad Nafisi, Hormozgan’s deputy governor, told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the two boats came under attack Monday evening from what he described as an “enemy drone” in the Persian Gulf. The IRNA report did not mention an attempt by Iranian forces to seize a U.S. drone.
The latest incident, which was reported earlier by Axios, comes a week after Iranian state television reported that the country's navy captured one of the U.S. military’s underwater drones at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
Hawkins said then that an Anduril Dive-LD drone had malfunctioned while it was surveying the waters in the region and the U.S. military no longer had possession of it. He stressed that the drone was defective and noted that it was also an “older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment.”
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Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Lisa Mascaro and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
