CENTCOM (US Central Command)

CENTCOM began enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports on 14 July, after earlier maintaining that the strait of Hormuz remained open. The shift made the command an active regulator of commercial movement as well as the force conducting US operations in the area.

US Marines started boarding vessels under CENTCOM's blockade on 16 July. By 13 September, the command and Iran were giving conflicting accounts of how the tanker El Gaia had been disabled. For CENTCOM, physical enforcement now sits beside public claims that shape route, insurance and attribution decisions.

On 17 July, CENTCOM's campaign reached Ahvaz and Yazd, extending the target area beyond the coastal zone used earlier in the war. Yazd's position about 540 kilometres inland showed the command directing a broader air and maritime operation against Iranian targets.

US forces struck near Ahvaz again on 19 July and hit a water pumping station. The repeated attack meant CENTCOM had not returned to a narrow coastal mission after the first inland wave. It also expanded the command's operational consequences from military sites to infrastructure serving civilians.