Iran said Wednesday it struck 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the United States sank five Iranian oil tankers overnight, marking the largest exchange of attacks on shipping since the six-month war between the two countries began. Iran also fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan the same day. At least one seafarer died and another went missing after a tanker came under attack near Dubai.
The wave of strikes ended roughly a month of relative calm and pushed benchmark Brent crude futures above $100 a barrel for the first time since July. U.S. diesel prices hit a record high above $5.94 a gallon.
Tankers Burn Near the Strait
U.S. Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers overnight and released video showing the ships on fire before they sank. The military said the strikes came in response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting a U.S. Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, according to the U.S. military.
Washington has adopted a policy of hitting Iranian tankers each time Iran fires on U.S. warships, and it says it has struck 10 tankers in the past week alone. “Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
Iran said it fired on two U.S. ships and eight tankers of its own in response. One seafarer died aboard the oil products tanker Hercules Star while it was anchored off Dubai, and another crew member went missing, according to the vessel’s charterer, Peninsula. Maritime security sources said a drone may have hit the ship.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported a separate vessel in the area was listing and possibly taking on water after being struck by a projectile. Reuters could not confirm whether this was the same ship. Two Iraqi port officials said a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of fuel oil, the New Andros, caught fire after a drone strike in Iraqi waters. The Iraqi government confirmed the incident and said the tanker had been used for storage, with no casualties reported among its 22 crew members.
UKMTO said it received several reports of merchant ships struck by disabling fire in the northern Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on both sides of the strait. Iran also threatened tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to state media, and a maritime security source said a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged at the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they would sharply escalate any response to further attacks, striking 20 targets for every two or three the enemy hits. The Guards said Iran would soon release maps of an enlarged off-limits zone at sea stretching as far as Chabahar, near Iran’s border with Pakistan.
Missiles Target U.S. Base in Jordan
The Revolutionary Guard Corps said it fired ballistic missiles Wednesday at a base used by U.S. forces near Al Azraq in eastern Jordan. Jordan’s military said its air defenses intercepted 18 of the 20 missiles, with two landing harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said Iran’s strikes in Jordan failed to cause damage and that all American troops were accounted for.
The exchange follows weeks of fighting that has hit military, shipping and energy targets on both sides after a pause that began in late August.
Oil Markets Tighten as Yemen Fighting Grows
Washington had reported growing success guiding tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, a route that carried a fifth of the world’s oil supply before the war. That progress stalled after fighting resumed on August 30.
Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at Rystad Energy, said flows through Hormuz dropped to as low as 2 million barrels per day, down from 8 million to 9 million barrels per day the week before fighting resumed. The price of refined fuels has climbed faster than crude itself. U.S. diesel hit its new record of $5.94 a gallon on Wednesday, and gasoline prices are higher than usual for this time of year.
Fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi movement has added a second front to the conflict, raising further doubts about the region’s energy supply. On Tuesday, the Houthis attacked four Saudi cities, setting off fires at oil installations that were visible from space. Saudi authorities said 73 people were wounded, and the Saudi Press Agency released footage showing damaged homes and injured patients in hospitals.
Saudi authorities issued alerts Wednesday in two of the cities hit a day earlier but later said the threat had passed. A Saudi-backed government based in southern Yemen has launched a multi-front assault on Houthi-held areas, while the Houthis have threatened Saudi shipping routes through the Red Sea.
The renewed fighting on both fronts, combined with record fuel prices, leaves shipping companies and energy markets bracing for further disruption in one of the world’s most important oil corridors.
