Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz escalated Monday after US President Donald Trump announced Washington was beginning “Project Freedom,” to help “guide” ships stranded by Iran’s closure of the crucial waterway. Iran said the US had “disregarded” its warning shots and that it had struck a US frigate with 2 missiles. Washington outright denied this, saying it had managed to transit the Strait, which again Tehran rebuked, triggering a war of words in which both sides traded claims of attacks.
The US president described it as a “humanitarian gesture”: that the US will help escort merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iran’s warning that any foreign forces entering the waterway would face aggression.
Tehran claimed it fired warning shots at the US Navy, before Fars News Agency – a semiofficial news agency close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – said 2 Iranian missiles had struck a US frigate after it “disregarded” the warning, and that the frigate had been forced to retreat and flee.
US Central Command took to social media to deny any warships had been struck by Iranian forces, reiterating it was carrying out Project Freedom and enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports. It also claimed – without giving the vessels’ names – that two US-flagged merchant ships had managed to successfully transit the Strait.
Iran’s Navy though, rebuked this as “baseless” and “utterly false,” saying no commercial vessel or tanker had passed through the waterway.
Both a top US admiral and Donald Trump also claimed 6 small Iranian boats had been sank by the US Navy, despite strong denials from Tehran.
As the war of words progressed and both countries traded accusations, misinformation was quick to follow, with internet users sharing dated images that falsely claimed to show Iran’s missiles striking the US warship.
Vedika Bahl talks us through the timeline of these claims, and fact-checks some of the misleading videos in Truth or Fake.
