CENTCOM Public Affairs said in a release timed 18:40 on Tuesday 1 September that US forces had struck IRGC air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites inside Iran1. The release justifies the operation by "recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz and against American service members". It names no spokesperson, carries no quotes and gives no count of aircraft, munitions or aim points.
The categories track the mining dispute item by item. Mine-laying capability, maritime assets and the radar that would cue them are the machinery behind the claim that Iran can close or contest the southern approach, and striking them is an answer to that claim rather than to the wider war. Air power for this had moved into position the week before, when USS George Washington relieved USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
A published target list is a rare thing in this campaign, and it does work its author may not have intended. Once a command specifies what it hit, every category it omits becomes a question that can be put to it, and every rival account of the same night can be measured against a document with the command's name on it. Iran's retaliation followed within hours, reaching four countries.
CENTCOM's release covers strikes on Iranian soil and offers no accounting of anything American forces did at sea that evening, which leaves open whether it describes the whole operation.
