US military says it struck the five Iranian tankers after IRGC targeted a US warship twice in two days.
US bombs five Iranian oil tankers after its navy is attacked
Iran says it has attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the US announced it had sunk five Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near Kharg island after accusing Tehran of launching ballistic missiles at a US warship.
Iran also fired missiles at US forces stationed at the Al-Azraq base in Jordan.
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The exchange of fire overnight and Wednesday morning comes amid escalating tensions in the Gulf six months into the US and Israel’s war on Iran, with Tehran closing the Strait of Hormuz and Washington enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
The hostilities drove oil prices above $100 a barrel in early trading on Wednesday. Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned US attacks on Iranian tankers, warning of the escalatory consequences of such attacks.
“In response to the US’s aggressive actions against Iranian oil tankers, armed forces, in accordance with their inherent right of legitimate defence, attacked US military bases and facilities located in Jordan, which continues to support US military attacks against Iran, as well as several US vessels,” it said.
In a statement late on Tuesday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had sought to target a US warship twice over the past two days, but that the vessel “successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks”.
“No American personnel were harmed,” it said.
CENTCOM said it responded by striking and destroying the Iranian oil carriers, M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman, as well as M/T Derya near Kharg island.
“American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” CENTCOM added.
It later published a video that it said showed the M/T Riesco sinking in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran claims attacks on Jordan
The IRGC confirmed that five tankers were targeted. It said it retaliated by subjecting the Al-Azraq base in Jordan to “fierce missile strikes” and claimed that hangars used by US fighter jets were destroyed in the attacks.
The IRGC also claimed ballistic missile attacks on the US Navy DDG-119 and DDG-53 destroyers, saying the strikes caused “significant damage … to these vessels”.
In a subsequent statement, it said its naval forces targeted “two American vessels and 8 tankers in the region, causing great damage to them”. It was not clear if the two “American vessels” were the same destroyers mentioned in the earlier statement.
There was no immediate comment from the US on the Iranian claims.
The ship attacks followed a statement by the IRGC that warned of imminent attacks on oil tankers in Bahrain and Kuwait’s borders. The IRGC said all crews must evacuate immediately.
The IRGC also said a maritime restricted area would extend from Chabahar in Iran into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with its precise coordinates to be announced.
The announcement follows comments on Sunday by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, saying Iran would establish a restricted zone outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Later on Wednesday, maritime monitor UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of an attack on a cargo ship off the coast of Iraq.
The vessel was hit by a projectile 52km (28 nautical miles) southeast of al-Faw, Iraq, the UKMTO added.
The Jordanian Armed Forces, meanwhile, said the country’s air defences engaged 20 ballistic missiles, “successfully intercepting and destroying 18 of them”. Two missiles “fell in unpopulated areas”, it said in a statement.
The attacks did not cause any casualties, and specialised teams “have begun securing the locations where debris and shrapnel fell”, the military added.
Earlier, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Ali Abdollahi, had warned that Tehran would strike US military installations across the region if Iranian tankers were targeted.
‘War crime’
The US had previously attacked three Iranian oil tankers on September 5, causing one of them to sink. Tehran said it responded on the same day by attacking three commercial ships and three US-linked ships.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday condemned the latest US attacks on Iranian commercial vessels as a violation of the United Nations charter, describing them as a “war crime”.
It said the “illegal and aggressive actions” were a continuation of the US’s military “aggression” and “economic war” against the country and warned that Washington and its partners bear full responsibility for the consequences.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the strikes, telling reporters during a visit to Colombia that Washington will not back down. “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,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the attacks mark an “escalation” in the six-month-old conflict.
“The US is now finding different targets, new targets, in terms of response to Iranian attacks, or what the US administration says are Iranian attacks,” he said.
“Whether these tanker attacks are part of a formulated strategy or whether it is just a question of circumstance, that is not particularly clear at this point,” he said. “However, there is no doubt that these attacks on Iranian tankers would have an economic impact on Iran, and that does fit into what the US administration has declared is its present strategy, which is to bring economic strangulation to Iran.”
Also on Tuesday, the IRGC claimed the capture of an unmanned US submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz “in a complex intelligence and operational action”.
But the US military said the submersible drone had “malfunctioned” as it was surveilling regional waters. It said the “defective drone” had not collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment.