The U.S. pursued its bombing campaign of Iran for the 11th consecutive night, Centcom said in a July 21 statement. “Over the past three months, Iran has attacked more than 30 commercial vessels transiting the international waterway vital for regional and global trade. The unwarranted attacks have endangered hundreds of innocent mariners and undermined freedom of navigation,” it said, as if unaware that it was the U.S. that started the war in the first place. “Despite Iranian aggression, the Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit. Since early May, CENTCOM forces have helped facilitate the transit of approximately 900 commercial vessels and 450 million barrels of crude oil.”
AP, however, told a different story. “With negotiations and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz largely stalled, both sides have sought to gain leverage by targeting civilian infrastructure in the region relied on by millions of people,” it reported overnight, following the Centcom statement. “A barrage of U.S. strikes hasn’t loosened Iran’s grip on the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas was shipped before the war.”
