Arabic version: الولايات المتحدة تنشئ قوة مهام بشأن الطرق البرية الإيرانية
According to Al Jazeera, the United States military’s Central Command has created Task Force Iron Gate to prevent Iran from using ground routes to transport advanced weapons and other materials. The plan expands a months-long US naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM said the Tampa, Florida-based task force will coordinate with other US government agencies. Its stated mission includes preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.
Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM’s commander, said the new force would reinforce the success of what he called an “ironclad blockade” against Iran at sea. Michael Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant defence secretary for the Middle East, told Al Jazeera that the task force would seek to determine where weapons systems enter, how they could be cut off and how Iran transports its energy.
Mulroy said that, if President Donald Trump orders a further escalation, attacks would likely focus on a series of economic and infrastructure targets rather than the primarily military targets of Operation Epic Fury. He described this as part of a plan intended to limit Iran’s ability to fight and fund itself.
Separately, CENTCOM said it disabled the St. Kitts-flagged commercial cargo vessel M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman after forces directed its crew to abandon targeted spaces. CENTCOM said US aircraft fired precision munitions at the ship’s stern. It also said enforcement actions since July had redirected 147 compliant commercial vessels and disabled five merchant ships that refused to comply.
On Saturday, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported explosions on Qeshm Island and in Jask, Sirik and Bandar Abbas. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy also said two oil tankers struck mines near the Strait of Hormuz after travelling through what it described as an unsafe area with navigation systems switched off.
