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Tankers hit after missile fire
The United States struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships in regional waters, according to U.S. Central Command.
“U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers Saturday after Iran launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy ships”
CENTCOM said a U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer evaded multiple attacks and that no American personnel were harmed, while it retaliated by permanently disabling the M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and the M/T Stark 1 near Jask and completely destroying the M/T Kylo in the Gulf of Oman.
NBC News reported that CENTCOM said the Kylo was not carrying oil at the time and that its crew was directed to abandon the vessel before American forces struck it in multiple locations.
The BBC added that CENTCOM said it had "permanently disabled" a tanker near Kharg Island and another near Jask in the Gulf of Oman, and "completely destroyed" a third in the Gulf of Oman, while Iranian state media confirmed the attacks and said there were no casualties in the attack on the tanker near Kharg Island.
Condemnation and warning
Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the U.S. strikes, calling them "illegal and aggressive" and accusing Washington of waging a naval blockade and economic war against Iran, NBC News reported.
In the same NBC News account, the ministry said the attacks violated the United Nations Charter and constituted a war crime and a threat to international peace and commercial shipping.
The BBC reported that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media, "It's simple: if Iran shoots at US ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers," and it also cited a spokesperson for Iran’s military warning that strikes on U.S. military vessels would be expanded if they continued attacking Iranian ships.
CENTCOM’s commander Adm. Brad Cooper framed the retaliation as an economic message, saying in a statement, "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."
Kharg, shipping, and escalation
Kharg Island, described by NBC News as a tiny but strategic island 15 miles off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf, plays a central role in the country’s oil industry and has repeatedly emerged as a flashpoint during the conflict.
“Kharg Island, a tiny but strategic island 15 miles off the coast of Iran”
NBC News reported that Petras Katinas, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, previously told NBC News that Kharg is the "backbone" of Iran’s oil trade infrastructure and the primary gateway for the country’s oil reserves, while it also noted that U.S. forces struck military targets on the island in March but deliberately spared its oil infrastructure.
The BBC said ninety percent of Iran's crude oil comes through a terminal on the island, transported through pipes from the mainland, and it reported that the crews aboard the two attacked tankers in the Gulf of Oman were taken to shore in lifeboats.
CNN warned that the fresh exchanges threaten to heighten a shipping war in and beyond the Persian Gulf, as Iran seeks to prevent shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz without its consent and the U.S. steps up targeting of Iranian shipping, and it quoted CENTCOM saying the ships "are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies."