Two US Navy destroyers passed through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf after dodging an Iranian bombardment. CBS reports this, citing American defense officials.
The USS Truxtun and USS Mason, supported by Apache helicopters and other aircraft, reportedly faced a series of coordinated threats during the crossing. Iran launched small boats, missiles and drones at them in what officials described as a sustained attack. Despite the intensity of the attacks, neither ship was hit, CBS writes.
CBS: “Attacks on two US military ships repelled with defense measures and air support”
Military officials told CBS that defensive measures, reinforced by air support, successfully intercepted or repelled every threat launched against the two US destroyers that passed through Hormuz yesterday. They added that no launched projectiles reached the ships. The US military’s Central Command said yesterday that US destroyers had passed through the strait as part of an initiative called Project Freedom. However, the armed forces did not specify which or how many military ships were involved in the transit.
Danish cargo giant Maersk announced that one of its ships successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz under US escort yesterday. The ship, the American-flagged Alliance Fairfax, had been stranded in the Gulf since the outbreak of war in February and was “offered the opportunity” to depart escorted by the US military. “The ship then left the Persian Gulf escorted by US military assets” on May 4, the company said in a statement. “The transit concluded without incident and all crew members are safe and sound.”
The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim labels the announcement of the passage of a Maersk ship through the Strait of Hormuz as “unconfirmed information”. “Although some foreign news sources, citing Maersk, reported that the Alliance Fairfax vessel passed through the Strait of Hormuz last night with the help of the US military, no official statement was made by the shipowner,” Tasnim claims.
“Furthermore, data from the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) shows that the last position transmission dates back to 65 days ago, when the ship was anchored near the coast of the Emirates, at the port of Khalifa, in Abu Dhabi.” Furthermore, “the most reliable maritime traffic monitoring websites have not yet published news on the passage of the ship through the Strait of Hormuz”, the Iranian agency writes again.
Iran: “The ships hit yesterday by the US in Hormuz were carrying passengers, 5 civilians killed”
Iran has accused the United States of killing five civilians during an attack yesterday on two boats carrying passengers in the Strait of Hormuz. “Following the US military’s false claim that it had targeted six Iranian speedboats” it emerged that “the American aggressor forces attacked and opened fire on two small boats carrying people, headed from Khasab, on the coast of Oman, towards the Iranian coast, killing five civilians”, an Iranian military source was quoted by the Tasnim agency as saying, stressing that “the boats did not belong to the Revolutionary Guards”. Yesterday the US claimed responsibility for sinking six Iranian boats “trying to interfere with commercial shipping” in Hormuz, a statement immediately denied by a senior Iranian military official. “Iran has launched an investigation into the attacks on the boats,” the Iranian source added to Tasnim, stressing that “the United States must be held accountable for its crime.”
Trump: “I can’t tell you if the truce is still in force”
Donald Trump has refused to say whether the ceasefire between the United States and Iran is still in place, after both sides claimed an exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz. As a guest on “The Hugh Hewitt Show”, the US president was asked if the truce was “over” and if the attacks would resume. “Well, I can’t tell you,” Trump responded, adding that “if I answered that question, you would say this man is not smart enough to be president.” Sky News reports it.
Iran: “Progress in talks, Project Freedom is dead end”
“The events in Hormuz make it clear that there is no military solution to a political crisis. As talks are making progress thanks to Pakistan’s gracious effort, the United States should guard against being dragged back into a quagmire by bad actors. So should the United Arab Emirates.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi writes this on X, after Tehran denied having targeted the country in the Gulf. “Project Freedom is a dead project,” he concluded, referring to the US operation to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait.