The US has launched Donald Trump’s operation to open a route through the strait of Hormuz for hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, in a move that brought the region back to the brink of full-scale war as Iran sought to reassert its blockade. The US operation, which got under way on Monday after being announced as “Project Freedom” by Trump on Sunday night on his social media site, dramatically raised the stakes in a conflict that had been in a month-long period of uneasy limbo. Speaking hours after the operation began, the head of US Central Command , (Centcom), Adm Brad Cooper, said that US forces had destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones. He “strongly advised” Iranian forces to remain clear of US military assets in the region, which include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, drones and 15,000 troops.…