The US struck multiple Iranian tankers on Tuesday in response to more attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship. In a post on X, US Central Command said US forces "destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers" after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the US ship twice in two days. The American warship "successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol regional waters," Central Command said. "No American personnel were harmed."
Iranian state television also reported the strikes, saying US forces attacked at least three Iranian oil tankers near the southern port of Jask and near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. It said the crews were evacuated. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy on Tuesday warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for US attacks on Iranian tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of assisting in the attacks. After the tanker strikes, air defenses in Jordan intercepted at least eight Iranian missiles, Al Jazeera reports.
- The latest tit-for-tat strikes come as Washington and Tehran lurch back toward fighting during more than six months of war. Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, warned that such back-and-forth strikes can only risk more retaliation and further impact to the global economy. "There is no kinetic solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem," he said on social media. "Every attempt to impose one only brings Washington and Tehran closer to an escalation that may become increasingly difficult to control."
- On Saturday, the US military said it had struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with ballistic missiles, warning that it would, "if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet." Iran later said it planned to announce a new "exclusion zone" near the Strait of Hormuz aimed at vessels intending to transit.
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