Bdbusinessdaily.com – The narrow waterway that funnels roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply has once again become the flashpoint of a tit-for-tat exchange between Iran and the United States. On Wednesday, both sides issued sharply contradictory statements about missile salvos, shipboard damage, and tanker strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz, leaving observers without independent confirmation of what actually transpired on the water.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had fired ballistic missiles at two American naval vessels operating close to the strait: an aircraft carrier and a destroyer. According to the IRGC statement, both ships sustained damage and subsequently pulled out of the operational area. Tehran framed the salvos as a proportional reply to what it characterized as sustained American harassment of Iranian-flagged shipping and Washington’s role in enforcing a maritime blockade against Iranian trade.…