US forces announced that they destroyed, on July 16, the watchtower of Shahid Kalantari Port in Chabahar, southern Iran, which is part of a maritime surveillance system established by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along the Gulf of Oman coast.

Washington explained that the tower had been used for decades to monitor and target the movement of commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, noting that its destruction directly reduces the Revolutionary Guard's ability to coordinate attacks against civilian ship crews.

US forces stressed that the strike aims to preserve freedom of navigation in territorial waters for all ships, except those seeking to violate the US naval blockade imposed on Iran.

In a separate context, Washington categorically denied Iranian claims regarding an attack on the US Al-Tanf base in Syria, asserting that no US soldier has been killed or captured in the region recently, and describing the claims as false.