US forces strike several Iranian tankers in response to warship attack
The US has struck several Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship, an official has said.
The newly reported strikes are the latest in a line of tit-for-tat strikes as Washington and Tehran lurch back toward fighting during more than six months of war.
According to NBC News, the Iranian attacks did not hit the ship or injure US personnel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy (IRGC) has 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 US attacks on Iranian tankers.
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The warning, carried by Iranian state television, said the US military had targeted several Iranian oil tankers. It accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting US forces and assisting in the attacks.
“Following the actions of the American military in targeting several Iranian oil tankers, we warn all oil tanker crews in the areas around the ports of Kuwait and Bahrain, which are hosting these forces and are complicit in their actions, to immediately evacuate their vessels, whether they are at anchor or docked as they will be targeted,” the IRGC Navy said in a statement.
On Saturday, the US military said it had struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with ballistic missiles, warning that it would, 'if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet'.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media at the time: "It's simple: if Iran shoots at US ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers."
Iran later said it planned to announce a new 'exclusion zone' near the Strait of Hormuz aimed at vessels intending to transit.
Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said new zone should be announced in the coming days and weeks and ‘will begin from the line of the US naval blockade, extend toward the Strait of Hormuz, and from this side continue into the Persian Gulf’.
“Any ship that enters this area with the intention of passing through the Strait of Hormuz and is identified will be placed on our sanctions list.”
The latest strikes are part of a dual economic and military approach by President Donald Trump as he struggles to bring an end to a more than six-month-old war with Tehran.
The Strait of Hormuz, a significant waterway which is responsible for carrying around 20 percent of the world’s oil, has become a key battleground in the US-Iran conflict.
However, Trump has more recently claimed that new pipelines, shipping routes and overland transport could be used to replace the waterway.
“The Hormuz Strait is not what it used to be,” he said.
“They’re going to end up with a Hormuz Strait that’s not very necessary anymore.”
The strikes come just days after Trump called the conflict with Iran ‘small potatoes’.
Speaking at an Oval Office press conference at the weekend, Trump said: I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us.
“It’s not a big thing.”
Trump also claimed that the US had successfully stopped Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and alleged that American satellite intelligence would be capable of spotting any future threats from the country, if they arose.
Topics: US News, Politics, Donald Trump, World News
Claire Reid