Donald Trump has deployed thousands of US Marines to the Strait of Hormuz as the energy crisis from the Iran war grows.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has approved a request to send an amphibious ready group, which consists of warships and 5,000 Marines.
It also includes the USS Tripoli, an 18,500-ton amphibious assault ship carrying 2,000 marines, according to Axios.
The White House will also send an attached Marine expeditionary unit, a mobile military groups that operate from ships at sea.
The deployment would also bring America’s premier fighter jet, the F-35, to the Strait.
Three American officials told The Wall Street Journal that the request was made by the US Central Command, also called Centcom, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
The newspaper said Hegseth today stressed that Washington will ‘defeat, destroy, disable’ Iran’s military.
He added: ‘But it’s not just that Iran doesn’t have a functioning Air Force, or that their entire Navy is at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, or their missile force is shrinking daily.
‘They also don’t have the ability to build more. That’s the most important component I’d like to emphasise today.’
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At the center of the deployment is Hormuz, a narrow, almost ‘S’ shaped channel in the Persian Gulf that carries 20% of the world’s oil.
But in response to the US and Israel’s deadly February 28 attacks, Iran is attacking cargo ships carrying oil, sending oil prices sky-high.
Tehran has already left boats burbniung wrecks by flinging missiles and drones, but it’s also now deploying naval mines, US officials claim.
The country has more than 5,000 naval mines in its arsenal, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Doing so – as well as striking targets along the coast – has spooked insurance firms, making it eye-wateringly high for a vessel to get coverage.
With next to no oil flowing through the strait, the International Energy Agency said yesterday the world is facing ‘the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market’.
Drivers in the UK are now facing the pinch at the pumps, with petrol and diesel prices at their highest in more than 20 months this week.
A liter of petrol will set you back 135.7p today, up 3.53p from last week. Diesel, meanwhile, has swollen from 142.14p to 149p.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that US Navy escorts for commercial vessels could begin ‘soon’.
US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,200 Iranians since late February, including around 200 women and 200 children under the age of 12, according to human rights group HRANA.
In Lebanon, nearly 700 people have been killed amid fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah.
Seven American service members and 14 people in Israel have died.
Authorities in Gulf states have reported 17 people killed, of them 11 were civilians.
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