Iran launched missiles at US ships in the Strait of Hormuz early on Monday morning, Iranian state media Press TV reported.

The US military struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces were seen preparing to fire towards the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, a US official told The Jerusalem Post, marking the first US strike on Iran in several weeks.

According to Axios, the rockets were armed with sea mines.

IRGC-run media outlet Fars News reported that witnesses in the area heard the explosion.

The IRGC spokesperson claimed the attack was born out of "desperation" from the US and Israel, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Sunday evening.

"We will take retribution" against the US for striking Larak Island, the spoeksperson said, adding that Iran would "punish those responsible."

The IRGC said that the American attack had killed and injured several soldiers and civilians, but did not provide a precise casualty toll.

A US Marines F-35C Lightning II is staged for flight operations on the flight deck of the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 3, 2026.
A US Marines F-35C Lightning II is staged for flight operations on the flight deck of the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 3, 2026. (credit: U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS)

"This action will be met with a response from the sons of Islamic Iran, and the US will face punishment," IRIB reported.

The attack was "a strategic and fatal error by the Trump administration," the IRGC spokesperson said in a statement on X/Twitter. It "will shift the balance against its designers and entail heavy costs."

"The US will pay the consequences of this miscalculation in both the economic and military arenas," the post added.

IRIB added that the attack on Larak Island "was carried out in two waves in quick succession."

This is the first US strike in Iran since the end of July. Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told foreign counterparts that the US would avoid striking Iran "for the time being," Axios reported.

The US intended to pressure Tehran through Operation Economic Outcast, sources familiar with the matter told Axios. 

The Operation, which was announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on August 24, was described by both Bessent and US President Donald Trump as an "economic D-Day" against the Iranian regime.

"Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone," said Bessent.

"We are no longer managing the Iranian threat," he emphasized. "We are ending it."

Rubio didn't rule out a return to strikes if Iran attacked the US first.