US destroys Iranian oil tankers after missile attacks on ships
The US military says it has destroyed three Iranian oil tankers in response to attacks on ships in the Middle East blockade.
CENTCOM said overnight the attacks followed attempts by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to strike US ships with ballistic missiles.
The US military says it has destroyed three Iranian oil tankers. Today
“A US aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed,” CENTCOM said.
In response, US warships “permanently disabled” the oil carrier M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island, and M/T Stark 1, near Jask.
US forces also “completely destroyed” the M/T Kylo in the Gulf of Oman, striking it multiple times after the crew was directed to abandon ship.
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost - taking out three of yours,” CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said.
“We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
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 US military assets in the region,” Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said on X.
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.
After the US statement, Iran’s state broadcaster reported the attack of the two other tankers, saying their crews had evacuated.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the attacks a war crime, and said that the consequences for continued US aggression, including “economic warfare”, would rest with Washington and its allies.
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 that it fired “precision munitions” into the smokestacks of two Iranian oil tankers, both unladen.
The attacks were in response to Iranian missiles. Today
Strikes come a week after fighting resumed
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.
Shooting between the US and Iran resumed last week. Today
“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.
US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said that 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.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains low. Today
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 United Nations 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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