US forces struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with ballistic missiles, the American military said Saturday, warning that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet".
Experts called it a dangerous escalation after Iran’s previous attacks at sea targeted commercial shipping.
The strikes — a day after US President Donald Trump sought to minimise the conflict as “small potatoes” — keep up a new tilt back toward fighting after six months of on-again, off-again war that began with US and Israeli attacks on the country on Feb. 28. Both sides have sought to inflict both military and economic pain, and negotiations have collapsed.
The military’s statement said an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling in the region and no US personnel were hurt. It was not clear when the Iranian missiles were fired. The statement said that two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.
The US statement called the tankers part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.
A spokesperson with Iran’s joint military command later warned that strikes against U.S. military ships would be more severe if the US continues to interfere with Iranian shipping, the state broadcaster reported.
That Iran targeted a US aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile “indicates that Tehran is becoming increasingly willing to accept risks it previously sought to avoid, including directly threatening some of the most important U.S. military assets in the region,” Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said on X.
Iran had reported a strike near Kharg Island
Earlier, Iranian state television had said that four US missiles struck a tanker about 10km from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil. Kharg Island has been repeatedly targeted during the war, including in US strikes on military sites there in March.
The US said that one tanker was struck off Kharg Island and another was struck near Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz. The unladen tanker was hit in the Gulf of Oman, and the US said its crew had been “directed to abandon ship.” The statement shared what it called video footage of the strikes.
After the US statement, Iran’s state broadcaster reported the two other tankers attacked, saying their crews had evacuated.
“We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command.
Between the war and the disabling of ships during the US blockade of Iranian ports, it's not immediately clear how many Iranian oil tankers have been targeted. On May 8, the US military said it fired “precision munitions” into the smokestacks of two Iranian oil tankers, both unladen.
The latest strikes came nearly a week after the US and Iran resumed attacks following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian communities along it again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a US bombardment of southern Iran. One strike hit a wedding.
Masoumeh Zarei, 13, was wounded in the attack. She spoke to The Associated Press at a hospital while being treated for injuries to her abdomen.
She said the wedding celebration had already begun when she set out to join it. She never made it there. She was knocked unconscious when a telecommunications tower was struck. Her next memory was of waking up in a hospital.
“The party had just started, and we wanted to go there,” Zarei said, her voice hoarse. “I had made my nails really pretty for the party, but everything changed.”
Her friend, 14-year-old Kiana Karimi, also was wounded and in intensive care. She told the AP that she heard five explosions.
“The first three explosions at the telecommunications tower threw us to the ground,” Karimi said. “I quickly got up to pick my brothers up off the ground. Then there were two more explosions, and after that I don’t remember anything.”
US had tried to turn to economic pressure
The Trump administration appears to have adopted a dual-prong approach to the conflict, responding militarily to attacks on the strait while going after foreign financial institutions that handle Iran’s money. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said there was no prospect for renewed talks as long as Iran goes after ships, while noting that major military operations ended in July.
But Tehran's hard-line new senior leaders have signalled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions. The elected government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, has said that it favours a negotiated end to the war.
Iran has found ways over the years to circumvent sanctions — and now the US blockade — and get its oil to buyers to help ease growing economic pressures. That relies in part on a shadow fleet transporting its oil.
Meanwhile, the issue that helped lead to the war — Iran's nuclear program — was meant to be addressed in negotiations that fell apart soon after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June. Now diplomats say the US, Britain, France and Germany seek to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failure to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Instead, Tehran's new leverage focuses on the strait that is crucial to global oil and natural gas shipments and was seen as an international waterway before the war began.
The US military has been helping to guide ships through the strait as Tehran asserts control and targets some vessels, but overall traffic remains low.
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