CAIRO (AP) — U.S. forces struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with missiles, the American military said Saturday, warning that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
The strikes — a day after U.S. President Donald Trump sought to minimize the conflict as “small potatoes” — keep up a new tilt back toward fighting after six months of on-again, off-again war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on the country on Feb. 28. Both sides have sought to inflict both military and economic pain, and negotiations have collapsed.
The military’s statement said that an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling in the region and no U.S. personnel were hurt. It said that two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.
The U.S. statement said that the tankers were part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.
There was no immediate Iranian response.
Iran had reported a strike near Kharg Island
Earlier, Iranian state television had said that four U.S. missiles struck a tanker about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil. Kharg Island has been repeatedly targeted during the war, including U.S. strikes on military sites there in March.
The U.S. said that one tanker was struck off Kharg Island and another was struck near Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz. The unladen tanker was hit in the Gulf of Oman, and the U.S. said its crew had been “directed to abandon ship.” The statement shared what it called video footage of the strikes.
After the U.S. statement, Iran’s state broadcaster reported the two other tankers attacked, saying their crews had evacuated.
“We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command.
The strikes came nearly a week after the U.S. and Iran resumed attacks following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian communities along it again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment of southern Iran. One strike hit a wedding.
Masoumeh Zarei, 13, was wounded in the attack. She spoke to The Associated Press at a hospital while being treated for injuries to her abdomen.
She said that the wedding celebration had already begun when she set out to join it. She never made it there. She was knocked unconscious when a telecommunications tower was struck. Her next memory was of waking up in a hospital.
“The party had just started, and we wanted to go there,” Zarei said, her voice hoarse. “I had made my nails really pretty for the party, but everything changed.”
Her friend, 14-year-old Kiana Karimi, also was wounded and in intensive care. She told the AP that she heard five explosions.
“The first three explosions at the telecommunications tower threw us to the ground,” Karimi said. “I quickly got up to pick my brothers up off the ground. Then there were two more explosions, and after that I don’t remember anything.”
U.S. had tried to turn to economic pressure
The resumption of fighting in the past week came after new U.S. efforts to apply economic pressures on Tehran, whose hard-line new senior leaders have signaled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions. The elected government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, has said that it favors a negotiated end to the war.
Iran has found ways over the years to circumvent sanctions — and now a U.S. blockade of its ports — and get its oil to buyers to help ease growing economic pressures. That relies in part on a shadow fleet transporting its oil.
Meanwhile, the issue that helped lead to the war — Iran's nuclear program — was meant to be addressed in negotiations that fell apart soon after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June. Now diplomats say the U.S., Britain, France and Germany seek to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for failure to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Instead, Tehran's new leverage focuses on the strait that is crucial to global oil and natural gas shipments and was seen as an international waterway before the war began.
The U.S. military has been helping to guide ships through the strait as Tehran asserts control and targets some vessels, but overall traffic remains low.
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Amir Vahdat reported from Minab, Iran. Cara Anna reported from Jerusalem.
