CAIRO — The U.S. military said Saturday it had hit three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships came under missile fire, issuing a sharp warning that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
The attacks came just a day after President Donald Trump attempted to downplay the conflict as “small potatoes,” but they underscored a renewed shift toward open fighting in a stop-start war now stretching into its sixth month. The conflict began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, and since then both sides have pursued military and economic pressure as diplomatic efforts have fallen apart.
According to the U.S. military statement, an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer avoided “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while operating in the region. No U.S. service members were injured, officials said. The military added that two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled,” while a third tanker, which was not carrying cargo, was destroyed.
U.S. officials said the vessels belonged to a shadow shipping network used to generate funding for Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guard and allied armed groups across the Middle East.
Earlier, Iranian state television reported that four U.S. missiles had struck a tanker roughly six miles (10 kilometers) off Kharg Island, the site of a key export terminal handling much of Iran’s oil. The island has been hit repeatedly during the war, including in March when U.S. strikes targeted military facilities there.
The U.S. said 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. 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,” the head of U.S. Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper said.
The strikes came nearly a week after the U.S. and Iran resumed attacks following a month of relative calm, with the strait and Iranian communities along it again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment of southern Iran. One strike hit a wedding.
The resumption of fighting came after new U.S. efforts to apply economic pressures on Tehran, whose hard-line new senior leaders have signaled the willingness to dig in after weathering decades of sanctions.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. military has been helping to guide ships through the strait as Tehran asserts control and targets some vessels, but overall traffic remains low.
___
Anna reported from Jerusalem.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.