Three U.S. Navy destroyers came under attack Thursday while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. military responded with strikes on two Iranian ports. The USS Truxton, USS Mason and USS Rafael Peralta were hit by Iranian missiles, drones and small boats, but the vessels were not struck and no casualties or damage were reported as of publication.
Central Command said the U.S. carried out what it called self-defense strikes on Iranian facilities at Bandar Abbas and Qeshm after the attack. President Trump told News the ceasefire was still in effect despite the strikes on Iranian targets, calling them “just a love tap.”
The scale of Thursday’s attack stood out because American officials said it was fiercer and more sustained than the Iranian barrage two of the destroyers faced earlier in the week. During that Monday clash, the USS Truxtun and USS Mason entered the Persian Gulf after navigating an assault that included small boats, missiles and drones, with CENTCOM saying it destroyed six Iranian vessels.
That earlier fight unfolded as swarms of fast-attack boats moved close enough that American warships opened fire to keep them at bay. Over several hours, the warships and supporting aircraft used five-inch naval guns, CIWS, Hellfire missiles and.50-caliber machine guns in the defense. The destroyers then continued through one of the world’s most important chokepoints, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that carries a large share of global oil traffic.
The confrontation now sits inside a monthlong ceasefire that both sides have repeatedly tested. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this week the ceasefire was still in place, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. operation against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, was over. Thursday’s exchange suggests the fighting may have eased on paper without fully leaving the water.
Trump, for his part, described the U.S. strikes as “just a love tap” and said there was “great damage done to the Iranian attackers.” He added that they “dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!” The question now is not whether the U.S. can defend its ships in the Strait of Hormuz. It is whether the ceasefire can hold when both sides still appear willing to test it at the same choke point.
