US says it disabled 3 Iranian oil tankers

The United States said Saturday it struck three oil tankers linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after what it called failed Iranian missile attacks on American naval vessels.

US Central Command said American forces permanently disabled the crude oil carriers M/T Downy off Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask. It said forces also destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo in the Gulf of Oman, striking it in multiple locations after the crew was directed to abandon ship.

CENTCOM said the three vessels were part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network funding the IRGC and its regional proxies. Video posted by the command showed fireballs and flames after projectiles hit the ships.

“If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost -- taking out three of yours,” CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said after the strikes.

Iranian media had reported several explosions earlier Saturday near Kharg Island, a major Iranian oil hub in the Gulf.

The new clashes came after Tehran said Thursday that its armed forces had attacked US military bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Iran had vowed to avenge civilian deaths at a wedding that it blamed on an American strike.

US Vice President JD Vance said the alleged wedding strike, which the Iranian Red Crescent said killed four people in a southern coastal town on Tuesday night, was being investigated, but said he was sceptical of the reports.

Vance said he “wouldn't call it a war” and claimed that “right now, there is no active shooting” despite ongoing exchanges of fire. US President Donald Trump backed those comments, calling the Iran war “small potatoes” for the United States and saying: “It's not a big thing.”

Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned this week that Iran had adopted a “new strategy” against Washington.

The United States has been trying to pressure Tehran over its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed. A fragile ceasefire collapsed in July after attacks on commercial ships in the waterway.

Washington is also seeking to choke Iran's economy through sanctions on entities with financial links to the Islamic republic. Vance said Thursday that Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz was “effectively gone” and that oil flows through the waterway were returning to pre-war levels.