U.S. Military OBLITERATES Iranian Tankers After Attempted Navy Attack

U.S. Central Command announcing they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers tied to the IRCG following an attempted attack on a U.S. Navy warship. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commenting on the Iranian attacks. Listen. Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships and for every time they do that or try to do that they're going to lose tankers and I think you'll see that again today. Iran retaliating against the U.S. by firing on Jordan as well as threatening ships in Kuwait and Bahrain. Fox News contributor and former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman joins me now. Dan thanks for coming on to talk to us about this. You know no U.S. personnel was hurt which is good but this is obviously something that we have started seeing more of since these attacks kicked back up a couple weeks ago but now the IRCG is warning of further attacks so where do you see this all going with what we've seen in the last week and a half? Well I think Iran has deliberately made the Strait of Hormuz the center of gravity in their conflict with the United States. Clearly the U.S. economic pressure the blockade on Iran is having a significant impact and I think that's why Iran is escalating their attacks on U.S. bases. We saw the United States strike five IRGC tankers yesterday and then three more on Saturday and Iran responded with a ballistic missile attack on our base in in Jordan. Iran has retained some ballistic missile capability some of those missiles are dispersed throughout the country we haven't destroyed all of them. Iran knows they're going to lose every single tactical engagement but they are vowing never to capitulate and they want to drive up the price for to the United States and the world for continuing the conflict. And that's interesting you say that because that's what I think everyone looking at this sees they know they're going to lose that it really doesn't look like there's any way for them to come out on top with this. Their economy is in the tank right now so why keep going? Well to use a comparison to to Afghanistan I think particularly appropriate right now as we commemorate the 25th memorial of 9-11 and the attacks on that day. I think Iran wants to wait us out and they know they'll lose every military engagement but they are hopeful that they will exact such a price on us that they will demonstrate that the United States has limited influence that's their goal to reduce or eliminate altogether our influence in the Middle East to induce us to negotiate if we ever do negotiate on their terms. They don't want to give up their nuclear program their ballistic missile arsenal and they'll never stop supporting their proxy terrorists that's the challenge I think that the Trump administration faces. Now the Trump administration has made it clear that we are going to continue to target Iran's military and continue to pressure with unprecedented levels of pressure on Iran's economy and and so I think that's where we're at right now and and we'll see where this goes in the coming weeks and months ahead. I want to get your your thoughts on this really quickly before I let you go. A report is revealing details about an operation to demine the Strait of Hormuz writing that the U.S. quote sent Navy SEAL divers robot boats and specialized underwater craft in to the straits for a four month period. It was a clearance mission and the process of explosive device disposal was carried out and underwater in the darkness and they attempted to do this to eliminate a crucial factor deterring ships from carrying vital cargo through the strait. How much planning had to go into something like this? This is four months. Four months of execution and significant planning beforehand. This is an extraordinary covert demining operation relying on intelligence about where all those mines were located and then conducting the operation in harm's way. We know that Iran would like nothing more than to obstruct our military while they were conducting those demining operations. This is an extraordinary tactical success and I would expect that we'll hear more from the Pentagon on the details of how we were able to accomplish this. Yeah it's absolutely incredible if you if you read the the full details about it. Dan Hoffman, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Thanks. You're welcome. Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox One.