{"id":2564,"date":"2026-07-27T06:27:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/07\/27\/centcom-chief-believes-us-strikes-around-hormuz-no-longer-effective-axios\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T06:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T06:27:34","slug":"centcom-chief-believes-us-strikes-around-hormuz-no-longer-effective-axios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=2564","title":{"rendered":"CENTCOM chief believes US strikes around Hormuz no longer effective \u2013 Axios"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Admiral Brad Cooper has reportedly told President Donald Trump that most designated bombing targets in southern Iran have already been struck<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"150\"><strong data-start=\"67\" data-end=\"74\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"451\" data-end=\"696\">The top US commander in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, has advised US President Donald Trump that striking Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz was no longer effective, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"698\" data-end=\"973\">Cooper, who leads US Central Command (CENTCOM), reportedly told Trump that the designated bombing targets in the area had largely been exhausted. He added that there was no point in continuing the strikes unless the US returned to major combat operations, according to Axios.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"975\" data-end=\"1402\">Trump paused the strikes on Friday, abruptly ending a 13-day bombing campaign amid reports that regional mediators were rushing to broker a new ceasefire. Several American news outlets reported that Trump was also concerned about dwindling stocks of interceptors used to counter Iran\u2019s retaliatory missile and drone attacks on bases across the Middle East. Trump, however, denied that the US was running short of ammunition.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mf.b37mrtl.ru\/files\/2026.07\/thumbnail\/6a661e9f85f54002af79a005.jpg\" alt=\"Rangers assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment assault their targets during a live fire training exercise at Ft. Johnson, La. on December. 3, 2023.\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/643489-pentagon-eyeing-megaraid-iran-uranium\/\">Pentagon eyeing megaraid to steal Iran\u2019s nuclear stockpile \u2013 media<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-start=\"1404\" data-end=\"1719\">The Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime chokepoint, remains closed to regular commercial shipping despite American strikes on Iran\u2019s port infrastructure and military sites in the country\u2019s south. The US resumed its maritime blockade of Iran earlier this month following attacks on tankers attempting to transit the strait.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1721\" data-end=\"1887\">Both sides have signaled that the truce, first reached in April and later expanded through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on June 17, is effectively over.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1889\" data-end=\"2202\">The latest round of hostilities erupted over differing interpretations of the MoU, which was intended to provide more time for negotiations over Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Tehran insists it has the right to control all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and has labeled routes designated by the US Navy as illegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Admiral Brad Cooper has reportedly told President Donald Trump that most designated bombing targets in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}