US forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday after the Revolutionary Guards fired ballistic missiles at a US Navy warship twice in two days, as Iran launched missile strikes on US targets in Jordan.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the crews of all five vessels — the Kivik, Charminar, Horizon 1, Riesco and Derya — were warned to abandon ship before the strikes.
The targeted warship evaded both Iranian attacks without casualties, CENTCOM said.
Iranian state-affiliated news agency confirmed one oil tanker was struck near Jask and another tanker four miles off Kharg Island. Iran’s state broadcaster has reported that a commercial vessel was also attacked in the coastal waters of Jask county.
According to Tasnim, citing local sources, the attack on the tanker near Kharg caused no casualties.
Iran launched missiles at US targets in Jordan following the tanker strikes, according to Iranian state-run television.
“Given the malign actions of the terrorist US military in targeting several oil tankers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we warn all tanker crews in the area of the ports of Kuwait and Bahrain, which host these terrorists and are partners in their aggression, to leave their vessels immediately, whether at anchorage or at the quays, as they will be targeted,” IRGC said.
The Khatam al-Anbiya central command followed with a threat to US bases in the region.
“The US military has ordered Iranian oil tankers to evacuate so that it can strike them; therefore I declare that any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in US bases in the region being targeted by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Major General Abdollahi said in a statement.
Jordan’s military said its air defence systems intercepted 18 ballistic missiles launched toward its territory and that two others landed in uninhabited areas. No casualties were reported.
Jordan hosts several US military installations and has been a repeated target of Iranian strikes since the war began on 28 February.
Iran also said it had captured a US unmanned underwater vessel at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz before dawn, broadcasting images of what it described as the captured drone on state television. Iran had claimed to have struck a US Navy sea drone on Sunday.
The Trump administration separately announced new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian commercial and private airlines and foreign cargo providers, in a further effort to isolate Tehran from its remaining trading partners.
The exchange marks one of the sharpest escalations since the framework deal the two sides signed in June broke down the following month.
Both sides have been attempting to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passed before the war began.
The US has been enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran has sought to impose its own transit regime on commercial shipping through the strait.
Additional sources • AP, AFP