Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired multiple drones at commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz starting Sunday, with US Central Command confirming it shot down several of the one-way attack drones aimed at vessels passing through the narrow waterway. The strait remained open for navigation. Iran is willing to threaten the corridor through which roughly 20% of global oil moves every day.
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What happened in the strait
On June 12-13, CENTCOM confirmed the interception and destruction of several Iranian drones that were targeting vessels transiting the chokepoint. These weren’t surveillance drones doing flyovers. They were one-way attack drones, the kind designed to hit something and not come back.
The incidents are part of a broader pattern. The IRGC has been implicated in drone strikes on tankers, including vessels named the Prima and Louis P, since February 2026. Iran has also been enforcing what it calls a “traffic separation scheme” in the strait, a unilateral move that effectively lets Tehran dictate terms to commercial shipping in international waters.
