The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that a missile attack hit the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), a US landing ship, forcing it to retreat towards the southern Indian Ocean. The US side has not yet confirmed or denied the attack.
Operation „True Promise 4″
According to an IRGC statement carried by Iran's Tasnim News Agency, this was the 98th wave of the operation, dubbed „True Promise 4″, in which Iranian naval and air forces carried out strikes on US and Israeli command, operational, logistical and military-industrial infrastructure. The operation, according to Gard, was dedicated to Brigadier General Majid Khadimi, head of the IRGC's intelligence directorate, who was believed to have been killed in previous US-Israeli strikes.
In addition to the USS Tripoli, Fars News Agency, close to the IRGC, said the Guards also attacked an Israeli-linked container ship, identified as SDN7, with a cruise missile, which caught fire after being hit. The incident precedes a similar incident over the weekend, when the IRGC reported that the Israeli ship MSC Ishika caught fire after a drone attack in the Strait of Hormuz.
Who is the USS Tripoli
The USS Tripoli arrived in the Middle East region in mid-March 2026, approximately two weeks after the start of active fighting between the US, Israel and Iran. It has approximately 2,500 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Group on board, confirmed USNI News, a specialist agency tracking the US Navy. The ship has F-35B fighters, MV-22B Osprey transport aircraft and CH-53E Super Stallion heavy-lift helicopters, which provide US CENTCOM with strike capabilities against Iranian targets.
The wider context of the conflict
The IRGC also claims that Iranian ballistic missiles in the same operation hit targets in north and south Tel Aviv, Haifa, chemical plants in Be'er Sheva and sites with Israeli military forces in Petah Tikva. The Guards also said that a joint Emirati-Israeli drone and aircraft manufacturing plant at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait was hit. Since the start of the conflict, Iran has virtually closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping - traffic has dropped by around 90 percent, according to an analysis by GB News, causing a spike in global oil prices with a direct impact on economies around the world.
Why caution is needed
The claims of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards must be assessed soberly. Neither the US military nor Pentagon-appointed spokesmen have yet confirmed the attack on the USS Tripoli - and that is the key fact. The IRGC has a long history of exaggerated battle reports intended primarily for domestic audiences. Independent verification of the ship's location or the extent of any damage is not yet available. As in all war conflicts: the first casualty is usually the truth.
One thing is certain: the military conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, which erupted on 28 February 2026 with the launch of Operation Epic Fury, is today entering a new, potentially even more dangerous phase.
gnews.cz - GH
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