American forces disabled or destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday in response to what the U.S. military said was a ballistic missile attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on two Navy warships operating in the region, marking a sharp new escalation in the six-month conflict.
Central Command said an American aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer evaded multiple missiles fired at them and that no U.S. personnel were injured. In retaliation, the U.S. said it permanently disabled two loaded crude carriers — one near Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export terminal, and another near Jask, close to the Strait of Hormuz — and destroyed a third, empty tanker in the Gulf of Oman after its crew was told to abandon ship. CENTCOM described the vessels as part of a network funneling revenue to the Revolutionary Guard and its regional proxies.
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of Central Command, said U.S. forces would not hesitate to protect American personnel and, if needed, would go after what remains of Iran’s vulnerable tanker fleet. Iranian state broadcasters confirmed the tankers were struck and said crews had been evacuated beforehand; separately, Iranian media claimed Tehran had also targeted three U.S. vessels in the exchange, a claim American officials have not confirmed.
Analysts described the strikes as a significant deepening of hostilities, noting that Iran’s earlier attacks at sea had focused on commercial shipping rather than direct missile fire at U.S. Navy vessels. The confrontation came a day after President Trump had downplayed the state of the conflict, calling it “small potatoes,” and followed a Treasury Department move Friday sanctioning a Turkish bank Washington accuses of helping launder Iranian oil revenue through China and Turkey.
Kharg Island has repeatedly figured in the conflict; the U.S. struck military sites there in March while avoiding its oil facilities, and Trump has previously threatened to seize the island outright, at one point posting an AI-generated video depicting it under attack. The war has run since February 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran, and diplomatic efforts to end it have so far collapsed.
