JERUSALEM — U.S. warplanes and attack helicopters have ramped up assaults against Iranian drones and naval vessels, U.S. officials said, in an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that Iran has effectively closed to most Western ships. The de facto blockade has helped drive up oil prices and rocked the global economy.
The intensified attacks came as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran approached the three-week mark with no clear endgame or timeline outlined by U.S. or Israeli leaders and a weakened Iran still firing missiles and drones at other countries in the Middle East.
Even as the United States was trying to force open the Strait of Hormuz, and planning to send additional troops to the region, President Donald Trump sent a contradictory signal.
In a social media post Friday, he said the United States was “getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down” the military attack on Iran and that he would leave it up to other nations to protect the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier Friday, when asked by a reporter on the White House lawn about a possible ceasefire in the Middle East, Trump responded that there was no need for a truce with Iran. “I don’t want to do a ceasefire,” he said. “You know, you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”