The U.S. military said Saturday that it struck three Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for strikes on two Navy warships.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media following the strikes, “It’s simple: if Iran shoots at U.S. ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers. All they have to do is stop shooting at @USNavy.”
The military said in a statement earlier that the strikes were aimed at Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command, said in a statement posted by CENTCOM on X. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
The statement said U.S. forces “permanently disabled” two Iranian crude oil carriers and “completely destroyed” another in the Gulf of Oman. These tankers were “part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network” funding Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM said that before it struck the carrier in the Gulf of Oman, U.S. forces first directed the crew to “abandon ship,” indicating the Trump administration intended to avoid further escalation even as it described the latest strikes as retaliatory in nature.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said it received a report of several merchant vessels involved in military action in both the Gulf of Oman and the Northern Arabian Gulf, but was unable to determine whether there were any casualties.
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