Operation Praying Mantis

Operation Praying Mantis was the 18 April 1988 attack by the United States on Iranian naval targets in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the mining of a U.S. warship four days earlier. It took place during the US presidency of Ronald Reagan and the rule of Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini.

On 14 April, the American guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine while transiting international waters as part of Operation Earnest Will, the 1987–88 effort to protect reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian attacks during the Iran–Iraq War. The explosion pierced the hull and broke the keel of the Samuel B. Roberts, which nearly sank but was saved by its crew with no loss of life.

After the serial numbers of mines recovered in the area were found to match those of mines seized on an Iranian barge the previous September, U.S. military officials planned a retaliatory operation. On 18 April, the attack destroyed, damaged, or sank two Iranian oil platforms, two frigates, a fast-attack craft, several armed boats, and two fighter jets. Two U.S. Marine aviators died when their helicopter crashed into the Gulf. The attack pressured Iran to agree to a ceasefire with Iraq later that summer, ending the eight-year Iran–Iraq War.

Iran later sued the United States, claiming that the attacks had breached the countries' 1955 Treaty of Amity. On 6 November 2003, the International Court of Justice dismissed the claim but ruled that Operation Praying Mantis and the previous October's Operation Nimble Archer "cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America."

Praying Mantis was the largest of the U.S. Navy's five major surface engagements since World War II. It saw the U.S. Navy's first exchange of anti-ship missiles with opposing ships, and its only sinking of a major surface combatant since World War II, until the sinking of IRIS Dena in Operation Epic Fury in 2026.