US launches Task Force Iron Gate to cut Iran’s overland supply routes

The United States has created a new military task force to choke off the overland routes Iran uses to bring in arms and other goods, extending a naval blockade of Iranian ports that has run for months. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the move on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

CENTCOM named the formation Task Force Iron Gate and said its purpose is to keep Iran from using ground routes to move advanced weapons and other materials. Admiral Brad Cooper, who commands CENTCOM, said the unit would reinforce what he described as the success of the “ironclad blockade” at sea.

What the unit will do

Based in Tampa, Florida, the task force will work with other US government agencies. According to CENTCOM, it will target the flow of advanced weapons, technology with both civilian and military uses, sanctioned goods and illicit income across Iran’s land frontiers and the Caspian Sea.

Michael Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, told Al Jazeera the unit’s job will be to establish where weapons are entering Iran and how those channels could be severed. He added that it will also examine how Iran moves its energy exports.

Mulroy said that if President Donald Trump orders the war to escalate, the likeliest course is strikes on this “series of targets”. In his view, they would centre on economic and infrastructure sites, unlike Operation Epic Fury, which he said concentrated chiefly on military objectives. The aim, he argued, would be to cut the Iranian government off from both its capacity to fight and its capacity to finance itself.

Blockade enforcement continues

In a separate statement on Saturday, CENTCOM said it had disabled a commercial cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman under the blockade of Iranian ports. A US military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of the St. Kitts-flagged M/V Huda after American forces told the crew to leave the targeted areas, the command said.

CENTCOM added that enforcement since July has led US forces to turn back 147 commercial vessels that complied, while five merchant ships that refused were disabled.

Tension around Hormuz

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported hearing two explosions on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as several blasts in Jask, Sirik and Bandar Abbas. A day earlier Trump had confirmed new strikes on Qeshm, calling them “minor”. He said Tehran still wants a deal as talks mediated by Qatar continue, according to Al Jazeera.

Separately, the navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said two oil tankers struck sea mines near the strait on Saturday. Iranian state television, citing the navy, said the vessels had sailed through an “unsafe” stretch with their navigation systems switched off, and that they were severely damaged and came to a halt.

What remains unclear

Al Jazeera’s account does not say when Task Force Iron Gate will begin operations or which land routes it will first target. Whether Trump will order wider strikes, as Mulroy suggested was possible, also remains open while the Qatari-mediated talks continue.