US strikes Iranian tankers as Tehran fires at Jordan base

US forces struck five Iranian oil tankers after Washington said Iran twice targeted an American warship, prompting Tehran to fire missiles at a US base in Jordan in the latest escalation between the two countries.

US Central Command said four tankers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were hit in the Gulf of Oman and a fifth was struck near Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal off its Gulf coast. CENTCOM said the tankers were part of “a multi-billion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies”.

According to Al Jazeera, CENTCOM identified the vessels as M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1 and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman, and M/T Derya near Kharg Island. “American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” CENTCOM said, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran responded by launching missiles at US forces stationed at the Al Azraq base in Jordan. Jordan’s Armed Forces said its air defences engaged 20 ballistic missiles and “successfully” intercepted and destroyed 18 of them. Two missiles fell in unpopulated areas, and no casualties were reported, the Jordanian military said. Specialised teams began securing locations where debris and shrapnel fell.

The IRGC said it had subjected Al Azraq base to “fierce missile strikes” and claimed hangars used by US fighter jets were destroyed, Al Jazeera reported. US Central Command said no American personnel were harmed in the earlier Iranian attacks on the US warship, which it said “successfully evaded” ballistic missiles fired over the past two days. The IRGC claimed those attacks on US Navy DDG-119 and DDG-53 destroyers caused “significant damage” to the vessels, according to Al Jazeera.

The exchange sent oil prices higher in early Asian trading. Benchmark Brent crude rose 1.5% to $99.41 a barrel, while US-traded oil was up 1.6% at $94.55, the BBC reported. Al Jazeera reported that the hostilities briefly drove oil prices to $99.46 earlier Tuesday.

Kharg Island handles about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, with oil transported there through pipelines from the mainland. Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster confirmed an attack near Kharg Island, said the crew was evacuated and reported that a second tanker was hit near the southern port of Jask in the Gulf of Oman, according to Al Jazeera.

The IRGC also threatened to target oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports linked to the United States. “We warn all the crews of oil tankers in the Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports… to immediately abandon their vessels, whether at anchor or at the ports, because they will be targeted,” it said.

Before the US strikes, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Ali Abdollahi, warned on state television that any attack on Iranian tankers would trigger strikes on US bases in the region. “The US aggressor army has given Iranian oil tankers an evacuation warning to hit them, so I announce that any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in the targeting of US bases in the region by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Abdollahi said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would keep responding to Iranian attempts to hit US naval vessels. “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,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.

The latest round of strikes followed a month of relative calm and comes more than six months after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the BBC reported. Al Jazeera described the escalation as taking place six months into the US and Israel’s war on Iran, with Tehran maintaining the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Washington enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

On Sept. 5, the US struck three Iranian oil tankers after Tehran attempted to attack a US aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyer, the BBC reported.