CENTCOM Conducts 'Self-Defense' Strikes in Iran During Ceasefire, Hitting IRGC Boats and Bandar Abbas SAM Site

U.S. Central Command conducted strikes inside Iran on May 25, 2026 that it characterized as self-defense, targeting two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz and a surface-to-air missile site in Bandar Abbas that CENTCOM said was targeting U.S. aircraft. CENTCOM stated it “continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” referring to the Pakistan-mediated U.S.-Iran ceasefire that had held since April 8. The strikes — which triggered explosions in Bandar Abbas, about 70km from the strategic waterway — came as an Iranian delegation prepared to negotiate in Qatar, and as Trump stated the talks were “proceeding nicely” while warning it would “only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all,” threatening to return “Back to the Battlefront.”

The strikes show the ceasefire functioning as a rhetorical frame the administration can hold open while continuing unilateral “self-defense” military action — the “self-defense during ceasefire” construction lets the executive sustain operations without a renewed authorization vote, extending the war-power-expansion pattern of 2026-05-11--trump-ceasefire-life-support-iran-war-29-billion-pentagon. The Strait-of-Hormuz focus also keeps the blockade dimension live (the U.S. force in the region had grown to 17 warships and ~10,000 personnel), with direct downstream effects on the oil-price/inflation channel documented at 2026-05-12--iran-war-inflation-3-8-percent-gas-4-dollars-economic-impact. (Note: a “May 18 postponed strike at Gulf-state request” was reported by a Wikipedia aggregator but could not be corroborated by wire/primary sources during verification and is therefore excluded from this entry.)