US To Send Destroyer and Fighter Jets to Persian Gulf After Iran Tries to Seize Oil Tankers

The U.S. is sending fighter jets and a missile destroyer to the Strait of Hormuz after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers in international waters earlier this month, the Pentagon said Monday.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made the orders to send the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, F-35 fighters and F-16 fighters to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility "due to "a number of recent alarming events” in the region. The decision is mean to  "defend U.S. interests and safeguard freedom of navigation in the region," she said.

The U.S. Navy had said that Iran tried to seize two merchant vessels in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz on July 5, which provides passage from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean.

"One attempt included an Iranian Navy ship firing upon the merchant vessel,” Singh said. The following day, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized a commercial tanker in the Arabian Gulf.

 "In light of this continued threat and in coordination with our partners and allies, the department is increasing our presence and ability to monitor the strait and surrounding waters,” Singh told reporters Monday.

In May, the U.S. and its allies increased the rotation of ships and aircraft patrolling the Strait after a series of Iranian merchant vessel seizures. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the time that “we have seen repeated Iranian threats, armed seizures and attacks against commercial shippers who are exercising their navigational rights and freedoms in international waterways."

Singh called upon Iran "to immediately cease these destabilizing actions that threaten the free flow of commerce through this strategic waterway of which the world depends on for more than one-fifth of the world's oil supply."