United States military forces permanently disabled and destroyed three Iranian crude oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman on Saturday. The strikes followed ballistic missile attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting two U.S. Navy warships in regional waters, marking a sharp escalation in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
U.S. Forces Strike Three Tankers After Naval Warship Attacks
The military exchange erupted Saturday when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy vessels. According to United States Central Command, the warships successfully evaded the incoming missiles, and no injuries or deaths were reported among American personnel.
In immediate retaliation, American forces targeted three crude oil carriers linked to the Iranian military. U.S. Central Command said American forces permanently disabled the three oil carriers near Iran’s Kharg Island, Jask, and in the Gulf of Oman.
“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,”
Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander
We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,
the command said in a post on X. The U.S. military said the tankers were part of a shadow network that helps finance Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, placing the strikes within the broader U.S. effort to target financial and logistical networks associated with the IRGC.
Vessels Targeted Off Kharg Island, Jask, and the Gulf of Oman
CENTCOM said that two Iranian crude oil carriers were permanently disabled near Iran’s coast, specifically naming the M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and the M/T Stark 1 near Jask. Earlier Saturday, Iran reported four missiles struck one of its oil tankers anchored six miles from the island, according to state media Tasnim.
The U.S. military said a third vessel, the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo—also known as the “Noxen”—was targeted in the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM said the crew of the third tanker was directed to abandon the vessel before U.S. forces struck it at multiple critical points. Footage shows large tankers blown up in flames, as a thick plume of black smoke rises off the sea. A U.S. military aircraft crew can be heard over the radio warning an oil tanker near Kharg Island before unleashing a barrage of missiles that lit the vessel in flames.
“I’m preparing to fire. …You have three minutes to clear the crew,”
U.S. military aircraft crew
Crew members can be heard speaking in Persian and Urdu, and asking whether the ship’s captain was at his post before realizing he was still asleep. This was your final warning,
the U.S. crew says before firing at the tanker, which was first sanctioned by Washington in 2018. Get into your lifeboats and abandon the ship immediately.
Two of the struck ships were in the Gulf of Oman, and the third was anchored off Kharg Island, which is Iran’s key export hub through which 90% of its crude exports flowed before the war.
Broader Confrontation and Regional Security Strains
The latest strikes come amid heightened military tensions involving the two countries. The U.S. says the Islamic Republic was trying to place mines into the Strait of Hormuz last weekend, and after the U.S. responded to that attempt, the Iranian military then tried to hit an American base in Jordan.
“The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan,”
President Trump
Iran, however, has accused the United States of attacking an Iranian tanker near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. The competing accounts underline the growing tensions between Washington and Tehran and the risks to shipping in the region.
