US warships transit Hormuz
Two U.S. warships transited the Strait of Hormuz in the last 48 hours — the first such passage reported since the Iran war began. The movement comes amid heightened naval activity around regional shipping chokepoints and ongoing diplomatic efforts. (x.com)
Two United States Navy destroyers crossed the Strait of Hormuz on April 11 as the Pentagon began a mine-clearing mission in the waterway. The passage was the first publicly reported transit by United States warships since the war with Iran began on February 28. (centcom.mil) U.S. Central Command identified the ships as USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy. It said the destroyers entered the Arabian Gulf to help “set conditions” for clearing sea mines that it said had been laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. (centcom.mil) President Donald Trump said on April 11 that U.S. forces had started “clearing out” the strait and that Iranian minelaying boats had been sunk. Reuters reported the military’s own description was narrower, saying it was beginning preparations for mine clearance rather than declaring the route fully open. (usnews.com, wsau.com) Iran disputed the U.S. account. Iranian state media said Tehran had warned off a U.S. ship and denied that any American warship had crossed the strait. (aljazeera.com, turkiyetoday.com) The waterway matters far beyond the Gulf because it is one of the world’s main energy chokepoints. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said oil flow through Hormuz averaged 20 million barrels a day in 2024, equal to about 20 percent of global petroleum liquids consumption, and the International Energy Agency put 2025 crude and oil-product flows at about the same level. (eia.gov, iea.org) Traffic has only started to move again in small numbers. Reuters reported on April 11 that three supertankers passed through Hormuz that day, in what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the United States-Iran ceasefire took hold. (msn.com) The naval move came the same day U.S. and Iranian officials opened direct talks in Islamabad, according to Reuters and The New York Times. Those negotiations were described as the highest-level face-to-face contact between the two governments since 1979 and focused in part on shipping and ceasefire terms. (yahoo.com, nytimes.com) CENTCOM said more forces, including underwater drones, would join the operation in the coming days. For now, Washington is trying to prove commercial ships can move through Hormuz again without another military clash in the channel. (centcom.mil, nytimes.com)
