US military destroys Iranian tankers after Iran targets navy warship with missiles

The US military says it has destroyed multiple Iranian tankers after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps twice attempted to strike an American navy warship with ballistic missiles.

US Central Command said on Tuesday that the warship avoided both attacks and no American personnel were injured.

American forces then struck tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near Iran’s Kharg Island. Centcom said forces “directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck”.

The military described the tankers as “part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies”, but provided no further details.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Washington would continue responding to Iranian attacks.

“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. And I think you’ll see that again today,” Rubio told reporters in Colombia.

The latest strikes come after a period of relative calm in August, with the US and Iran again exchanging fire.