The United States military has destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attempted to strike a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
CENTCOM said the U.S. warship successfully evaded both attacks and continued patrolling regional waters, with no American personnel harmed.
In response, U.S. forces struck the M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1 and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman, as well as the M/T Derya near Iran’s Kharg Island.
According to CENTCOM, the crews were instructed to abandon the vessels before they were struck and rendered inoperable. The U.S. military accused Iran of using the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar network financing the IRGC and its regional allies.
Following the U.S. strikes, Iran launched ballistic missiles toward a U.S. military base near Al Azraq in Jordan, in another escalation of hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
Jordan’s military said its air defences intercepted 18 ballistic missiles, while two others landed in unpopulated areas. No casualties were reported.
Iranian state media reported the attack as retaliation for the latest U.S. strikes.
The latest confrontation comes just days after U.S. forces destroyed three other Iranian oil tankers following attempted IRGC attacks on a U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer. (Newswire)