US forces struck five Iranian tankers on Tuesday, sinking one, in response to Tehran twice targeting an American warship, US Central Command (Centcom) said. Four Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) were targeted, as well as another near Kharg Island, a major oil terminal off Iran’s coast, Centcom added. Tehran responded by launching missiles at a US base in Jordan – most of which were shot down – and said it attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Tit-for-tat strikes between the two countries have escalated in the past week, more than six months after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February.
Oil prices rose in Asia trading. Benchmark Brent crude was up by 1.5% at $99.35 (£73.35) a barrel, while US-traded oil was 1.3% higher at $94.23. Jordan said it had shot down 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, while two of them fell in unpopulated areas, an official spokesperson for the Jordanian Armed Forces said. After warning of further retaliatory strikes, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had attacked two US vessels, eight oil tankers and 10 “non-compliant vessels” trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.
The latest round of escalation comes after Iran targeted a US warship with ballistic missiles, which Centcom said were “successfully evaded”. It added that no American troops were harmed during the attacks. In response, the US said that the five Iranian oil tankers it targeted were “part of a multi-billion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies”. One of the ships it had struck, the M/T Riesco, sunk in the Gulf of Oman, Centcom later said, posting a video on X of the damaged vessel.
Kharg Island – where one Iranian tanker was attacked in the latest round of US strikes – hosts Iran’s main terminal for exporting oil. Some 90% of the country’s crude oil passes through the island in the Gulf, transported through pipes from the mainland. Pressure on oil prices has been exacerbated by wider regional instability. Also on Tuesday, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement attacked energy facilities and civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 people, according to Saudi authorities.
The drone and missile attack caused fires at oil facilities and installations that led to a temporary halt in operations, Saudi Arabia’s military and energy ministry said. When asked by reporters about the latest tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the situation was “pretty straightforward”. “Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships. And, for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers.
And I think you’ll see that again today,” Rubio told reporters during a trip in Colombia. The US strikes on Tuesday came hours after Iran’s navy claimed it had seized an uncrewed US submarine in the Strait of Hormuz. US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for Centcom, said that the “underwater drone operated by US forces malfunctioned more than a day ago” and was used to survey regional waters “in support of ongoing operations”. The defective drone was “an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”, he said, adding that US operations in regional waters were ongoing.
With additional reporting from Peter Hoskins. US and Iran trade retaliatory attacks on ships as conflict flares Iran warns of ‘faster, heavier, more painful response’ to US attacks
