USA fires on Iranian oil tankers in Middle East war

News blog about the Middle East war US fires on Iranian oil tankers

September 5, 2026, 6:21 p.m.|

According to the US military, the reason was previous missile attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on two navy ships.

All developments in the live blog

Much information about the course of the war, such as the number of victims or details of battles, cannot be independently verified. In addition to our own research, we use material from the news agencies dpa, Reuters, epd, KNA and Bloomberg for our live blog.

Important updates

US military: Never target civilians

US attacks targets in Iran

Oil prices continue to rise after new US attacks in Iran

USA: Have begun attacks on Revolutionary Guard Corps – banks targeted by sanctions

Tanker attacked again in Strait of Hormuz

US fires on Iranian oil tankers

The US military said it fired on three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including one off the oil export island of Kharg in the Persian Gulf, which is important to Iran. The responsible regional command, Central Command, said the reason was previous missile attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on two US Navy ships. No one from the American crew was harmed.

The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported the attack on the tanker off the island of Kharg. The ship was hit by four US missiles in open water. There were no injuries.

An attack on the Kharg facilities would further increase pressure on the Iranian economy, which is already suffering from a US naval blockade. Before the war, the country shipped 90 percent of its crude oil exports through the island. However, deliveries have been interrupted since the US blockade of Iranian oil exports began in mid-April. The US imposed the punitive measure after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.

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Pressure on Iran: USA sanctions Turkish bank

The US is imposing sanctions on a Turkish bank as part of the announced increased economic pressure on Iran. The Golden Global Bank and subsidiaries based in Istanbul facilitated transactions worth several million US dollars for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to a statement from the Treasury Department in Washington. They also supported the Iranian leadership's international payment transactions.

The sanctions will block all assets of the named individuals and companies in the USA and prohibit them from doing business with them. Financial institutions had to learn “the hard way” that the US was serious about its economic isolation of Iran, said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the statement.

Lucia Geier

Vance: Conflict with Iran is not a war

US Vice President J. D. Vance does not consider the military conflicts between the US and Iran to be a war. “I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said at the White House. There are currently no active battles, although the conflict has flared up again in some places. The USA had ended its major combat operations.

Israel reports capture of an underground Hezbollah base in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army says it has taken control of underground positions of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. In the area of ​​the strategically important hill called Ali al-Taher, the soldiers had "operational control" both above ground and underground, the army said. They “freed” the area from terrorists. Some were killed and others fled. Hezbollah did not initially comment. According to Israeli media reports, Hezbollah fighters had holed up there for weeks.

According to the Israeli army, the underground facilities include command centers, weapons storage, rooms for generators, bedrooms and lounges, showers and a kitchen. “This enabled the terrorists to organize combat operations and stay underground for longer periods of time,” it continued. The network was built up over more than two decades and was financed and planned by the Iranian leadership. The information cannot be independently verified.

Anna Schimpp

The civil war in Yemen continues to escalate

Heavy fighting has broken out again between the Houthi militia and the troops of the internationally recognized government in Taiz province in Yemen. The Houthi militia, allied with the regime in Tehran, is said to have fired more than a dozen rockets at government troops' targets on the Red Sea coast, military sources said. According to the state television station Saba TV, the army shot down several drones. The station reported “heavy fighting” on several fronts in western Taiz. Several government soldiers were killed, according to local reports.

The Iran War reignited the war in Yemen, which had already seemed frozen. The Iran-backed Houthi militia has been fighting Yemen's government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, for more than a decade. There has been an unofficial ceasefire since 2022 and the war seemed frozen; there were no major battles, but also no prospect of an end to the war: “No war, no peace,” summarized the British Yemen expert Helen Lackner.

Katz threatens to “take Iran back to the Stone Age” if attacked

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has threatened Iran with a massive response in the event of an attack. “We would hit the entire national military and civilian infrastructure in Iran – including the energy infrastructure – and take Iran deep into the Stone Age and the Age of Darkness,” Katz said, according to his office. “An Iranian attack on Israel would free us from any existing restrictions.”

He continued: “We are seeing signs that the enormous economic pressures facing Iran, as well as fears of an uprising and regime collapse, could push the country to desperate measures.”

According to a media report on Wednesday, Katz said Israel was preparing for the possibility of an Iranian attack during the upcoming Jewish holidays. Tehran “likes to attack on holidays,” the ynet news site quoted the Israeli defense minister as saying. From the evening of September 11th, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, will be celebrated. Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, begins on the evening of September 20th. In April there were attacks from Tehran during the Jewish Passover festival in the wake of the Iran war in Israel.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) visiting troops in southern Lebanon (archive photo). Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense/dpa

Trump: Destroyed Iran's new equipment

According to President Donald Trump, the renewed US military offensive against Iran will not last “too long”. Iran is trying to build a missile to drop mines, Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office. However, the USA destroyed them. Iran has also been working on repairing its radar and missile systems, which were also the target of the US attacks. "We turned off all the new equipment they were trying to deploy along the Strait of Hormuz," the president said. It was a very serious attack and the USA was ready for another at any time.

“Trump Street” instead of Hormuz Strait? US President provokes with possible renaming

US President Donald Trump has suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself on the Truth Social platform. “Now that we have it under US control, should we change the name Strait of Hormuz to TRUMP STREET???” he asked provocatively. “Just like America itself, it would then be “hotter” than ever before!” Trump added.

Trump has repeatedly announced or ordered the renaming of geographical locations - most recently the US-Canadian border lake Lake Ontario to "Lake America". Canada rejects the renaming.

In the case of the Strait of Hormuz, it remained unclear how Trump envisioned renaming the strait. Iran has territorial waters on its north side, Oman on its south side. At its narrowest point, the road is only around 39 kilometers long. Since Iran and Oman each claim a twelve nautical mile zone (about 22.2 kilometers), the territorial waters of both neighbors overlap. International waters do not exist in this area. Nevertheless, merchant ships were able to pass through the strait unhindered before the war began. The Strait of Hormuz is central to global trade in oil, gas and fertilizer.

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US military: Never target civilians

The US military has neither confirmed nor denied reports of a fatal missile strike at a wedding party in Iran. The spokesman for the responsible US regional command Centcom, Tim Hawkins, said on request that they were aware of the reports that came from Iranian state media. “The US military never targets civilians,” he emphasized, portraying this as different from the actions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

US forces attacked targets in Iran last night. According to Iranian media, at least 18 people were killed in the airstrikes. What attracted particular attention was the fact that a wedding reception building near Sirik near the Iranian coast was hit. At least four people were killed, including a small child. Other media reports spoke of five deaths. The Foreign Ministry in Tehran accused the USA of war crimes.

USA: Significantly more oil through the Strait of Hormuz

According to US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, significantly more oil has recently been shipped through the blocked Strait of Hormuz than in previous months. On Monday, tankers transported more than 17 million barrels of oil, he said in an interview with the US broadcaster CNBC. This is a record since the beginning of the Iran war.

The amount of oil allegedly transported is surprising: in June of this year, experts from the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated the amount of oil shipped in the months March to May at an average of 2.7 million barrels per day. Before the war broke out at the end of February, the volume was around 20 million barrels. Similar figures can be found from the US Energy Information Authority EIA, which recorded almost 21 million barrels passing through the strait every day in the first half of 2025.

US attacks targets in Iran

According to its own statements, the USA attacked military facilities of the Iranian armed forces during the night. The US forces attacked targets of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, including air defense positions, radar systems and devices for laying sea mines, as the US military command responsible for the region, Centcom, announced on Platform X. The attacks are a result of attempted Iranian attacks on merchant ships and US targets in the region. The more than 50,000 US forces in the Persian Gulf region remain ready to carry out attacks, it said.

As a result, Iran responded with missile and drone attacks on US targets in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. The conflict is taking place primarily in the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian southern provinces. According to Iranian media, at least 19 people were killed in the air strikes. Three members of a paramilitary unit died on the island of Lawan, and seven soldiers of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force died in Kermanshah province. A wedding reception building near Sirik near the Iranian coast was hit. Four people were killed, including a small child. In the industrial province of Khuzestan, officials reported seven deaths. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pirhussein Koliwand, condemned the attack on the wedding reception. In a letter to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, he called for an investigation, the aid organization said. Iran's Foreign Ministry has since described the attack on the wedding party as a war crime.

Iran: Two oil tankers hit mines in Strait of Hormuz

According to Iranian sources, two oil tankers hit sea mines while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The ships were unable to maneuver, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said in a statement carried by state media. The tankers traveled an “illegal route” in the strategically important waterway under the command of US forces. The Revolutionary Guard Navy had previously warned of the dangers of crossing the mined passage. Just a week ago, US President Donald Trump declared that all mines in the international waters of Hormuz had been cleared or blown up.

In addition, two Filipino sailors were killed in an incident on a ship belonging to the Saudi Arabian state shipping company Bahri, according to the company. The incident on the ship Sidr occurred on Monday, Bahri explained. The shipping company initially did not provide any details. On Monday, however, the British maritime authority UKMTO reported that a tanker was hit by three unknown projectiles as it exited the Strait of Hormuz. Bahri further explained that the shipping company is in constant contact with Sidr and is coordinating closely with the relevant authorities and representatives of the shipping industry.

Hezbollah and Israel attack each other in Lebanon

Israel's army says it is continuing to attack Hezbollah targets in neighboring Lebanon. The Iranian-backed militia used two drones loaded with explosives against Israeli soldiers in the area of ​​a strategically important hill called Ali al-Taher in southern Lebanon during the night, the Israeli military said in the morning. In response, Hezbollah facilities in the area of ​​the nearby town of Nabatiya, where they plan attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli soldiers, were targeted.

Lebanon's state news agency NNA confirmed several Israeli attacks overnight in southern Lebanon. Graves in a cemetery were damaged in attacks on the town of Arab Salim. There were also violent attacks at dawn. Residential houses were again destroyed in the night attacks in the area around Nabatija and Ali al-Taher. There was initially no information about victims. Hezbollah did not initially comment.

The heights of Ali al-Taher are a