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The U.S. military on Saturday said it struck three Iranian oil tankers after navy warships were targeted with missiles, 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 Iran on Feb. 28. Both sides have sought to inflict both military and economic pain, and negotiations have collapsed.
The military’s statement said a U.S. aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling in the region and no U.S. personnel were hurt. It said two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.
The U.S. statement said the tankers were part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.
A spokesperson with Iran’s joint military command later warned that strikes against U.S. military ships would be more severe if the U.S. continues to interfere with Iranian shipping, the state broadcaster reported.
Earlier, Iranian state TV had said four U.S. missiles struck a tanker about 10 kilometres from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil. Kharg Island been repeatedly targeted during the war, including U.S. strikes on military sites there in March.
The U.S. said 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. The statement shared what it called video footage of the strikes.
“We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” the head of U.S. Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper said.
After the U.S. statement, Iran’s state broadcaster reported the two other tankers attacked, saying their crews had evacuated.
Hostilities flare
The strikes came nearly a week after the U.S. and Iran resumed attacks following a month of relative calm, with the strait 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.”
Iran targeted multiple U.S. bases across the Persian Gulf on Wednesday after accusing the U.S. of launching a strike that killed four people at a wedding in southern Iran. U.S. Central Command told CBC News it’s investigating the claims.
Her friend, Kiana Karimi, 14, 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 up economic pressure
The resumption of fighting came after new U.S. efforts to apply economic pressures on Tehran, whose hard-line new senior leaders have signalled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions.
The elected government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, has said that it favours 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.
The U.S. has paused military attacks on Iran but is instead threatening to ‘tighten the noose’ and block all sources of revenue to Iran’s government, a move some say almost guarantees retaliation against the Americans.
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. 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.