US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that American forces are in the process of incapacitating Iran’s Navy, claiming that nine Iranian warships have been sunk thus far.
“They (Iran’s Navy) will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!” he said in a post on Truth Social. The claim came amid the rapidly escalating military conflict between Israel and the US on one side and Iran on the other.
According to Trump, US strikes also pummelled Iran’s naval headquarters and left it largely destroyed. “Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!” he added.
Iran’s military is retaliating with hundreds of missile and drone attacks, and the US confirmed the first three deaths of American service members killed in combat on Sunday. Another five have been seriously wounded during the conflict, the US military’s Central Command said.
The US-Israeli military operation, which sparked the ongoing fighting, managed to wipe out several leading figures of Iran’s military and political leadership, including the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The fighting between the two sides has engulfed the wider Middle East, with Iranian missiles targeting the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
Hours before Trump’s claim about Iran’s Navy, the US Central Command had announced that an Iranian corvette was struck by American forces during the start of the joint American-Israeli strikes, which has been codenamed Operation Epic Fury by the US.
The Central Command said the Iranian naval vessel was “sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Oman” near the Chabahar Port of Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they launched four ballistic missiles at the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, according to news agency Reuters, which cited Iranian state media.
However, US Central Command said that the “Iranian missile did not even come close” to the carrier, which continues to operate in the region.
(With inputs from Reuters)
