What Mattered This Week

YEMEN — A company security officer reported that a tanker sighted multiple explosions close to the ship about 69 miles (111 km) south of Al Mukha, Yemen, on Sunday, October 4.

The officer reported the crew safe and no environmental impact. The warning says authorities are investigating, and it advises ships to pass with caution and to report suspicious activity.

MIDDLE EAST — On October 1 a maritime reporting center received a third-party report that an unknown projectile had struck a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and Oman, and that a fire had started.

The report said the crew was safe, and it left the damage assessment and any environmental effect unknown. It did not name the tanker, the projectile, or who fired.

MIDDLE EAST — U.S. Central Command completed the orderly departure of U.S. forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq on September 30, marking the end of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq, the command said.

The U.S. Department of War stated the same day that the United States and Coalition partners formally concluded Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, consistent with the September 2024 U.S.-Iraq joint statement.

VIRGINIA — A mishap during aircraft recovery operations aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) occurred at approximately 6:18 p.m. EDT (10:18 p.m. UTC) on September 28 off the coast of Virginia, the U.S. Navy said on September 29.

Two naval aviators assigned to Carrier Air Wing 3 (CVW-3) ejected from their aircraft and were recovered by search-and-rescue personnel, according to the Navy. Both were returned to the ship and were being evaluated by medical personnel.

SOMALIA — On September 28, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) Public Affairs stated that U.S. forces conducted airstrikes on September 24 targeting al-Shabaab, which the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2008, in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia.

The command placed the airstrikes in the vicinity of Qumbi, approximately 56 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Kismayo in southern Somalia, withheld units and assets citing operations security, and published no battle-damage result, no casualty figure, and no time of day for the strikes.

MIDDLE EAST — The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), flagship of Carrier Strike Group 9, left Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on September 27 bound for the Arabian Sea station Adm. Daryl Caudle, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, named on August 31.

Caudle told sailors at a Fort Meade, Maryland, town hall that Roosevelt would take station in the Arabian Sea so USS George Washington, the Japan-based Pacific carrier then covering the Iran conflict, could return to its Pacific role.