US military says it destroyed 5 more Iranian oil tankers after missile attacks on Navy warship

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The U.S. forces also destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards tried to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyer with ballistic missiles, warning that it would, “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.” Iran later said it planned to announce a new “exclusion zone” near the Strait of Hormuz aimed at vessels intending to transit.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will not allow Iran’s attacks to go unanswered.

“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships. And for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers. And I think you’ll see that again today,” Rubio told reporters Tuesday when asked about the latest attacks in Iran while on a trip to Colombia.

Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, warned that such back-and-forth strikes can only risk more retaliation and further impact to the global economy.

“There is no kinetic solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem,” he said on social media. “Every attempt to impose one only brings Washington and Tehran closer to an escalation that may become increasingly difficult to control.”

U.S. Central Command said the military struck the tankers on Tuesday after the Revolutionary Guards targeted a Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days. “The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol regional waters. No American personnel were harmed,” it said in a statement.

It said the Iranian tankers destroyed on Tuesday were the Kivik, Charminar, Horizon 1 and the Riesco in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. military also destroyed the vessel Derya, which was located near Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz. The statement said the crews of the five vessels were told to abandoned ship before the attacks.

Iranian state television also reported the U.S. strikes, saying U.S. forces attacked Iranian oil tankers near the southern port of Jask and near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. It said the crews were evacuated.

An Iranian state TV reporter in Jask said an Iranian tanker was struck near the coast of Yekbeni. State TV later reported that the U.S. military attacked a second tanker near waters off Jask. Separately, state television reported that another Iranian tanker was attacked in the Kharg Island anchorage area.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy on Tuesday had warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting U.S. forces and assisting in the attacks.

A U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has squeezed the country’s economy by limiting its oil exports, while the American military has been helping a limited number of ships transit on a route through the Strait of Hormuz off Oman. Tehran wants ships to follow a route that it chooses through the strait, which was considered an international waterway before the war.

Konstantin Toropin, The Associated Press