Fighting escalated in the Middle East over the weekend after US airstrikes on Sunday targeted Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak. The exchange of fire was instigated by the US in retaliation against Iran’s new capabilities for firing mines from rockets into the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s use of rocket launchers to deploy sea mines into the strategic waterway would be unprecedented, but not implausible. Even so, some analysts remain sceptical.