General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, announced at the Pentagon that the United States has established a "reinforced security zone" in the southern section of the Strait of Hormuz as part of "Operation Liberty," in response to the Islamic Republic's attacks on commercial ships and U.S. forces. Since the ceasefire, the Islamic Republic has attacked commercial ships nine times and U.S. forces more than 10 times, leaving approximately 22,500 seafarers stranded on over 1,550 commercial ships.