U.S. Central Command says American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired ballistic missiles at U.S. Navy warships in regional waters. Two tankers were permanently disabled and a third was completely destroyed.
CENTCOM said an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer evaded the Iranian missile attack without any American casualties. “A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed,” the command said.
In response, U.S. forces disabled the MT Downy off Kharg Island — Iran’s main oil export hub — and the MT Stark 1 near the coastal city of Jask. A third vessel, the unladen crude carrier MT Kylo, also known as the MT Noxen, was struck in multiple critical locations in the Gulf of Oman and destroyed after its crew abandoned ship.
CENTCOM described the three tankers as part of a shadow fleet worth billions of dollars that bankrolls the IRGC and its regional proxies, and said Iran had no way to defend them.
“The three Iranian crude oil tankers are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran has no means by which to defend them,” CENTCOM said.
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours,” said CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
Iran’s state-run Tasnim news agency reported explosions near Kharg Island earlier Saturday, saying a tanker — presumed to be the Downy — was hit by four U.S. missiles, with no casualties reported.
Two U.S. carriers are currently deployed in the region: the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington, which relieved the USS Abraham Lincoln two weeks ago. The George Washington is reportedly sailing with only a single destroyer escort, raising the possibility that it was among the ships targeted by Iran’s ballistic missiles.
