US Military Strikes Iranian Oil Tankers After Navy Warships Targeted

The US military says it has struck three Iranian oil tankers after US Navy warships were targeted with missiles, warning that it would "if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet".

The strikes — a day after US President Donald Trump sought to minimise the conflict as "small potatoes" — keep up a new tilt back toward fighting after six months of on-again, off-again war that began with US and Israeli attacks on February 28.

The military's statement said that an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded "multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks" while patrolling in the region and no US personnel were hurt.

It added two Iranian oil carriers were "permanently disabled" and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.

The US statement said the tankers were part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.

There was no immediate Iranian response.

Separately, ten people were killed in Western Iran on Saturday in a fuel tanker explosion caused by a traffic accident, in which six were also injured.

Iran reported strike near Kharg Island

Earlier, Iranian state television said four US missiles struck a tanker about 10 kilometres from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil.

Kharg Island has been repeatedly targeted during the war, including US strikes on military sites there in March.

The US said that one tanker was struck off Kharg Island and another was struck near Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz. The unladen tanker was hit in the Gulf of Oman, and the US said its crew had been "directed to abandon ship." The statement shared what it called video footage of the strikes.

"We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet," said Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command.

The strikes came nearly a week after the US and Iran resumed attacks following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian communities along it again being targeted.

At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a US bombardment of southern Iran. One strike hit a wedding.

US had tried economic pressure

The resumption of fighting in the past week came after new US efforts to apply economic pressures on Tehran, whose hard-line new senior leaders have signalled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions.

The elected government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, has said that it favours a negotiated end to the war.

Iran has found ways over the years to circumvent sanctions — and now a US blockade of its ports — and get its oil to buyers to help ease growing economic pressures. That relies in part on a shadow fleet transporting its oil.

Meanwhile, the issue that helped lead to the war — Iran's nuclear program — was meant to be addressed in negotiations that fell apart soon after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June.

Instead, Tehran's new leverage focuses on the strait that is crucial to global oil and natural gas shipments and was seen as an international waterway before the war began.

The US military has been helping to guide ships through the strait as Tehran asserts control and targets some vessels, but overall traffic remains low.