US attacks 5 Iranian oil tankers, Tehran retaliates with strikes on Jordan

The United States has launched attacks on five Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near Kharg Island after accusing Tehran of launching ballistic missiles at a US warship twice in two days.

Iran responded to Tuesday’s attacks by firing more missiles at US warships as well as American forces stationed at the Al Azraq base in Jordan. Amman said its air defences intercepted and destroyed 18 of 20 Iranian missiles, while the rest fell in open areas.

The exchange of fire comes amid escalating tensions in the Gulf six months into the US and Israel’s war on Iran, with Tehran maintaining the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Washington enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

The hostilities briefly drove oil prices to $99.46 earlier on Tuesday.

In a statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had sought to target a US warship twice over the past two days, but the vessel “successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks”.

“No American personnel were harmed,” it said.

CENTCOM said it retaliated by striking and destroying the Iranian oil carriers, M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco in the Gulf of Oman, as well as M/T Derya near Kharg Island.

“American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” CENTCOM added.

Iran claims attacks on Jordan

Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster confirmed the attack near Kharg Island, which handled some 90 percent of the country’s oil exports before the war. It reported that the crew was evacuated and said a second tanker was hit near the southern port of Jask in the Gulf of Oman.

The IRGC also said that “several” Iranian commercial ships were hit, and that it retaliated by subjecting Al Azraq base in Jordan to “fierce missile strikes”. It claimed that hangars used by US fighter jets were destroyed in the attacks.

The IRGC went on to claim ballistic missile attacks on the US Navy DDG-119 and DDG-53 destroyers caused “significant damage… to these vessels”. It also threatened to target oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, warning crews there to evacuate immediately.

There was no US comment on the Iranian claims.

Jordan’s Armed Forces, meanwhile, said its air defences engaged 20 ballistic missiles, “successfully intercepting and destroying 18 of them”. Two missiles “fell in unpopulated areas”, it said in a statement.

The attacks did not cause any casualties, and specialised teams “have begun securing the locations where debris and shrapnel fell”, the military added.

Earlier, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Ali Abdollahi, had warned that Tehran would strike US military installations across the region if Iranian tankers were targeted.

“The US aggressor army has given Iranian oil tankers an evacuation warning to hit them, so I announce that any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in the targeting of US bases in the region by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Abdollahi said on state television.

‘War crime’

The US had previously attacked three Iranian oil tankers on September 5, causing one of them to sink. Tehran said it attacked three commercial ships and three US-linked ships in retaliation.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the latest US attacks on Iranian commercial vessels as a violation of the United Nations charter, describing them as a “war crime” and warning that Washington and its partners bear full responsibility for the consequences.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the strikes, telling reporters during a visit to Colombia that Washington will not back down. “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,” he said,

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, the attacks mark an “escalation” in the six-month old conflict.

“The US is now finding different targets, new targets, in terms of response to Iranian attacks, or what the US administration says are Iranian attacks,” he said.

“Whether these tanker attacks are part of a formulated strategy or whether it is just a question of circumstance, that is not particularly clear at this point. However, there is no doubt that these attacks on Iranian tankers would have an economic impact on Iran, and that does fit into what the US administration has declared is its present strategy, which is to bring economic strangulation to Iran.”