Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that the Iranian military has attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times since the two sides agreed to a ceasefire on April 7.
“Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships. And they’ve attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times,” Caine told reporters alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Caine noted that the number of Iranian attacks over the last month is “below the level of restarting major combat operations.”
The U.S. military on Monday launched an effort to guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has severely restricted shipping through since the first wave of American-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28.
The first day of the U.S.-led endeavor sparked hostilities between Iranian and American forces.
Iran opened fire Monday on U.S. warships in the region, to which the U.S. military responded by destroying six Iranian small boats, according to U.S. Central Command (Centcom) leader Adm. Brad Cooper.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also said Tuesday that the “Project Freedom” mission that American forces are undertaking, along with the U.S. Navy blockading Iranian ports, amount to a violation of the ceasefire.
But Hegseth said Tuesday that the truce remains in place.
“The ceasefire is not over. Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project, and we expected there would be… some churn at the beginning, which happened, and we said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have,” he told reporters, referring to “Project Freedom.”
Also on Monday, Iranian forces launched an attack on Oman and three attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Caine said.
The UAE Defense Ministry on Monday said that Iran fired four cruise missiles toward it. UAE forces intercepted three of those missiles, while another landed in the sea, the defense ministry noted.
“In addition to shipping, Iran has continued to deliberately attack its neighbors,” Caine remarked.
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