Iran strikes tankers outside Hormuz in signs of expanding campaign

Iran's armed forces struck two commercial tankers outside the Strait of Hormuz within 24 hours this week, in what appeared to be a deliberate expansion of attacks beyond the strait, as Iranian officials issued a fresh wave of warnings against the United States.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said several projectiles hit the oil and chemical tanker Acers, flagged in Antigua and Barbuda, 51 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal in Qatar on Wednesday. Casualties were reported.

Maritime intelligence firm Vanguard identified the vessel and said it was heading toward the Strait of Hormuz.

It was the first attack in that area in more than six months.

In a separate incident on Thursday, Vanguard reported a fire on a tanker some 40 kilometres off Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, which it identified as likely the Marshall Islands-flagged Dhalgout.

The UKMTO had not recorded the incident, and the cause of the fire was not immediately clear. NASA's FIRMS fire-detection system confirmed the blaze, and US military aircraft — including two KC-46 tankers, a KC-135, a P-8A maritime patrol aircraft and several helicopters — were over the area at the time.

Iran and media affiliated with the IRGC did not officially claim responsibility for either attack. IRGC-affiliated outlets implicitly suggested that Tehran had "extended the scope of its operations against commercial vessels that violate Iranian laws and regulations in the Strait of Hormuz to waters beyond the strait."

Both incidents fall outside the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments normally pass. The strait has been effectively closed since the war began in late February, after Iran and the US imposed concurrent naval blockades.

"The distance between you and us is determined by our missiles," Acting Defence Minister Majid Ebn ol-Reza posted on X on Thursday.

"Yesterday the Gulf of Oman, today the Indian Ocean and tomorrow the Bay of Pigs. If you make a mistake, you will see a new set of dividing lines.," ol-Reza added in an apparent reference to a failed, US-backed military landing on the southwestern coast of Cuba from April 1961 aimed at overthrowing the communist government of Fidel Castro.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had earlier warned that if the US or Israel attacked Iran again, Tehran could extend the war "as far as the Indian Ocean or other places," adding that Iranian forces had prepared contingency plans for worst-case scenarios.

Ebn ol-Reza was appointed acting minister after Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran's then defence minister, was killed on 28 February — the first day of the war — alongside several other military commanders. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has nominated Mehrdad Akhlaqi as a permanent replacement, and parliament is due to hold a confidence vote on 18 October.

Iran's army spokesman said separately that its forces were ready to carry out pre-emptive operations, if necessary, to prevent what he described as "any aggression or attack by the enemy."

At a midterm election campaign rally in Nebraska, US President Donald Trump defended the decision to go to war with Iran. "This is a small price to pay for keeping the world and our country safe. They can destroy a city. Let them destroy it. Let them destroy Los Angeles, let them destroy San Diego," he said.

At a separate rally in Texas on Wednesday night, Trump walked back those remarks after criticism. "We protect our own cities. We will not allow such a thing to happen," he said.

US President Donald Trump defended the launch of war against Iran at a midterm election campaign rally in Nebraska, stating that "this is a small price to pay for keeping the world and our country safe."

"They can destroy a city. Let them destroy it. Let them destroy Los Angeles, let them destroy San Diego," Trump said.

However, in another speech in Texas on Wednesday night Trump responded to criticism of his controversial remarks two days earlier about a possible Iranian attack on Los Angeles and San Diego.

"We protect our own cities. We will not allow such a thing to happen," he said.