Report: U.S. Personnel Injured in Iranian Attack on Boat Near Hormuz
Iranian forces hit a "U.S.-contracted" vessel near the Strait of Hormuz this week, according to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, four Iranian drones and one or more missiles were used in the attack. One projectile reached and struck the vessel, causing minor injuries to those aboard. Unspecified "U.S. personnel" were among those on the boat.
The injured are receiving treatment somewhere in a GCC nation, the sources told Yingst.
According to the Pentagon's internal database, more than 800 American servicemembers have been injured during the conflict with Iran over the course of the year to date. 18 have been killed.
Iran is also taking aim at U.S. Central Command's drone-boat assets. A spokesman told the AP that the U.S. military had destroyed two Iranian small craft as they attempted to capture an American drone vessel off the Iranian coast. Iran characterized it as an attack on fishing vessels and said that a number of fishermen had been reported missing.
It would not be the first attempt: Iran publicly unveiled a captured Anduril Dive-LD drone sub last week, and in 2022 its forces twice attempted to steal a military-grade Saildrone surveillance sailing vessel.
A new tally unveils the broader toll that the conflict has taken on U.S. force posture in the Mideast. Iran has pummeled base infrastructure throughout the region, according to servicemembers' first-hand accounts and a new review by the Pentagon's inspector general. U.S. bases from the UAE and Bahrain to Kuwait and Jordan have come under heavy fire from Iran's drone and missile forces, including multiple strikes on 5th Fleet headquarters in Manama. Despite the expenditure of an estimated two-thirds of the U.S. missile interceptor stockpile, hundreds of sites and roughly 20 aircraft have been damaged or destroyed by incoming fire that made it past air defenses.
that matters most
Get the latest maritime news delivered to your inbox daily.
"This is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public," a servicemember told CBS. "We're standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face."
In August, eight sources close to the Pentagon confirmed to the Washington Post that the U.S. is considering whether it makes sense to rebuild its bases in place, or to pull back to more defensible locations outside of the Gulf - further away from Iran's drone and missile assets.
