US Central Command on Monday published a video that it said showed “multiple one-way attack surface drones” bombing the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, marking the first known time that the US has used kamikaze drone boats in combat.
“Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” CENTCOM wrote on X.
“Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations,” the command wrote.
The attack was part of a series of strikes that the US launched against Iran starting on Sunday and overnight into Monday, as the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and ceasefire between the two nations has collapsed.
When announcing the completion of the overnight strikes, CENTCOM claimed it targeted “Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats using U.S. fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time.”
According to Iranian media, US strikes also hit civilian infrastructure, including two water pumping stations in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan and southern Bushehr provinces, and at least one employee of an irrigation company was killed in the strike in Khuzestan. A total of four people were reported killed by US strikes in Iran on Monday.
