The US military announced on Saturday that it had hit three Iranian oil tankers after US navy vessels were targeted by missiles, intensifying tensions in the area and stating it would "if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet."
According to the military, a US aircraft carrier and destroyer dodged "multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks" while operating in the region. No US personnel were hurt.
The Pentagon reported that two of the Iranian oil tankers were "permanently disabled," and a third tanker, which was empty, was destroyed.
The US claimed the ships were part of a shadow network used to fund Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and armed proxy groups active throughout the region.
"We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet," Adm Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, stated.
The announcement came after an earlier report from Iran that the US had struck an Iranian tanker near Kharg Island in the Gulf. Tasnim, a semiofficial news outlet linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported the strike occurred Saturday morning. It said the tanker's crew survived and was being evacuated.
The US said one tanker was hit off Kharg Island, another near Jask, and the empty tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The US statement also released video footage it said showed the strikes.
The latest attacks occurred nearly a week after the US and Iran resumed strikes following roughly a month of relative calm in the on-again, off-again conflict that started with US and Israeli attacks in February. Negotiation efforts have failed.
One of the strikes hit a wedding in southern Iran on Tuesday, killing four people, including a child, and injuring dozens, according to Iranian officials.
US Vice-President JD Vance said "sometimes things happen" when asked on Thursday whether a US strike was responsible for the deaths at the wedding.
The renewed strikes have also drawn new attention to a 28 February US attack in Minab that hit a school compound and killed at least 156 people, most of them schoolchildren.
A preliminary US military inquiry reportedly found the attack resulted from a targeting error after outdated coordinates marked the school as part of a nearby Revolutionary Guards naval base. The Pentagon said at the time it was investigating. A full report has not been released.
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