Strait of Hormuz — Global trade was thrown into turmoil when Iran abruptly announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz, ordering tankers to halt or turn back as fast‑attack boats, drones and missile batteries surged into the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil.

IRGC patrol craft fired warning shots across bows, forced at least two foreign tankers to anchor under armed guard and began laying what Western intelligence believes were naval mines along key shipping lanes. Iranian state TV hailed the move as “choking the arteries of American power,” warning that any ship “cooperating with the enemy” would be treated as a hostile target. Oil prices spiked within minutes, and insurers quietly froze coverage on Gulf transits.

Then the US Navy moved in. Within hours, a reinforced carrier strike group and allied warships established escorted “safe corridors,” sweeping suspected minefields and issuing blunt radio warnings to Iranian boats that strayed too close. When one IRGC craft approached a convoy at high speed and locked its fire‑control radar, a US destroyer responded with disabling fire, leaving the vessel burning and adrift as helicopters circled overhead.

Tomahawk strikes and precision air attacks soon followed against select coastal radar and missile sites that had illuminated US or allied ships. Faced with the prospect of losing its coastal defenses and watching escorted convoys resume, Tehran quietly softened its language, calling the shutdown a “temporary security inspection regime.”

The message from Washington was unmistakable: Iran can declare the Strait closed — but as long as the US fleet is willing to fight, it cannot keep it that way.