Iran, US hit tankers in new wave of attacks
Reuters, CAIRO, WASHINGTON and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
Iran yesterday said it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
The attacks in and around the vital waterway sent the price of oil surging, with the international Brent crude benchmark breaching US$100 a barrel for the first time since July. The politically sensitive average retail price of diesel fuel in the US hit an all-time high of US$5.94 a gallon.
Iran also said it had fired ballistic missiles at a base used by US forces in Jordan.
A sailor stands on the flight deck of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroy USS Mason on Friday last week.
Photo: US Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs via AFP
Attacks by both sides since the end of last month have shattered a month of relative calm, with the US and Iran hitting military, shipping and energy assets.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it would sharply escalate their response to any further attacks, and if the enemy struck two or three Iranian targets, Iran would respond by hitting 20.
Iran would soon release maps of a new, much larger off-limits zone at sea that would extend as far as the Arabian Gulf off Chabahar on the far reaches of Iran’s coast near Pakistan, the IRGC said.
The US said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers overnight, releasing video of ships ablaze before they sank.
The US Central Command called its attacks a response to the IRGC targeting a US Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days.
No Americans were harmed, the US said.
Washington has announced a new policy of attacking Iranian tankers in retaliation for fire that threatens its warships, and first said it hit three tankers on Saturday.
Iran said it is using new, more capable missiles to attack US ships.
“Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
The IRGC said it had responded with a ballistic missile attack on a base used by US forces near al-Azraq in eastern Jordan, and had fired on two US vessels and eight oil tankers attempting to cross an area of the Strait of Hormuz that it has declared off-limits.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had received reports of several merchant ships struck by disabling fire in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman, on either side of the strait. It was not immediately able to confirm casualties or environmental impact.
A vessel was reported listing, possibly indicating it had taken on water after being struck by a projectile off Port Rashid in the United Arab Emirates, UKMTO said.
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