US destroys five Iranian tankers, Iran retaliates by targeting US bases in Jordan

The US military announced on Tuesday that it had destroyed five oil ships in the Gulf region in retaliation for attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard against a US military ship over the past two days. The US Middle East Command (Centcom) “destroyed five ships carrying Iranian crude oil on September 8 after the Revolutionary Guard Corps twice targeted a US Navy vessel with ballistic missiles in the past two days,” it wrote in a statement. He claims that the American ship “foiled” these attacks and that no American military personnel were injured. Centcom also specifies that it asked the crews to abandon their ship before they were hit.

Four ships (the Kaviz, the Charminar, the Horizon and the Riesco) were destroyed in the Gulf of Oman and a fifth (the Derya) near the island of Kharg, specifies the press release, accompanied by videos of these ships hit by an explosion, then in flames. The Iranian Tasnim agency shortly before mentioned a “missile attack” against a “small Iranian oil tanker” a few kilometers from this Iranian island in the Gulf. The American army accuses these ships of “taking part in a shadow network of several billion dollars to finance” the Revolutionary Guards, Tehran’s ideological army, as well as its supporters in the region.

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The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, said on Wednesday that they had launched missiles at the American military base of Al-Azraq, in Jordan, in retaliation for attacks on Iranian oil tankers by the United States, according to the state agency Irna. “As part of this operation aimed at punishing the aggressor, maintenance and repair facilities, preparation areas and deployment locations for F-35, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as shelters for combat aircraft, were struck, inflicting heavy damage on the malicious enemy,” the Guardians said, quoted by Irna.

Iranian response

Shortly after the American announcement, the Guardians warned that they were going to “target” tankers in Kuwait and Bahrain, ordering the crews to “leave their ships immediately”, according to the official Irna agency. “In light of the crimes of the American terrorist army, which targeted several oil tankers from the Islamic Republic of Iran, we warn all tankers present in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, who welcome these terrorists and are complicit in their misdeeds, whether they are at anchor or at dock. We warn them to leave their ships, because they will be targeted,” the Guardians were quoted as saying by IRNA.

“Any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in strikes by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran against American bases in the region,” said the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, General Ali Abdollahile, quoted by state television. The Revolutionary Guards also claimed on Tuesday to have “captured one of the most modern underwater drones of the American army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz”, in a press release also relayed by state television. The American army, for its part, indicated that one of its drones, of an “old model”, had broken down in the region of the strait, without specifying whether it was the device seized by Iran.

Negotiations at a standstill

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for his part, affirmed Tuesday that the United States would continue these strikes. “Iran continues to try to hit American warships, and every time they do it or try to do it, they're going to lose tankers, and I think you'll see that again today,” he told reporters during a visit to Colombia.

Tehran and Washington continue to exchange fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ceasefire established in April which suspended the first phase of intense bombing started with the Israeli-American attack against Iran on February 28. Diplomatic negotiations remain at a standstill, with the two parties vying for control of this maritime lock through which a fifth of world oil and gas exports usually pass.

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Since the start of the war, traffic there has been almost paralyzed, disrupting global energy markets and sending crude oil prices soaring. Iran now requires ships to obtain authorization to pass through the strait, a measure firmly rejected by Washington and several countries in the region. The American government, which for its part applies a blockade on Iranian ports, also placed the entire Iranian air sector on its blacklist on Tuesday, threatening to sanction any organization working with the country's airlines, the main ones being Mahan Air and Iran Air.