BREAKING: The US appears to have abandoned its naval blockade line against Iran, pulling its aircraft carriers off it entirely after Iran's first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against a carrier. The warships have not been located in the CENTCOM area on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery since the beginning of September, including the USS George H.W. Bush, the USS George Washington, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and even their escorting destroyers.
The finding suggests the US has pulled back beyond the range of Iranian anti-ship missiles from a blockade line that until August sat at the exit of the Gulf of Oman. The pullback was likely prompted by Iran's first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against a US carrier on the night of September 5 with the Qasem Basir, which has a range of about 1,200 km and covers almost the entire Arabian Sea.
Iran said on September 12 that not a single US warship remains in the Persian Gulf, down from around 30 before the attack, with all US vessels holding at least 400 km off the Iranian coast. Iran's SNSC chief Rezaei said the Qasem Basir "created hell for the Americans, and they fled."
Independent imagery had not supported that withdrawal until now.