BREAKING: U.S. Central Command confirms the U.S. struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Iran targeting U.S. Navy warships.@AlexHoganTV has the latest | @SatAmericaFNC pic.twitter.com/csnCjxfhI0
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 5, 2026
“If you don’t stop bombing us we will really get angry & pull the Mahdi out of his well…”
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf says new attacks on the country will “meet a faster, heavier and more painful response”, adding that Tehran’s responses to US strikes would no longer be “proportionate.”
Washington claimed the Iranian tankers it struck were part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network financing the IRGC and its regional allies.
Iran has long relied partly on a shadow fleet to circumvent sanctions and sell oil, a source of revenue that has become more important since the US began blockading Iranian ports in April.
The Islamic Republic’s oil lifeline is being strangled at sea. Its exports have collapsed, its tankers are trapped on both sides of the blockade, and the hard currency keeping the Islamic Republic afloat is rapidly drying up.
- Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says new attacks on the country will “meet a faster, heavier and more painful response”.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it attacked three US-affiliated vessels and three oil tankers using an “unauthorised” route in the Strait of Hormuz.
- The claim came after the US military said it struck and destroyed three Iranian crude oil tankers in retaliation for attacks on US warships.
U.S. Strikes Three Iranian Tankers After Iran Attacks Aircraft Carrier
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Saturday announced that two Iranian oil tankers were disabled by U.S. airstrikes, and a third was “completely destroyed.” One of the tankers was struck near Iran’s primary oil loading facility at Kharg Island, confirming reports of explosions near the island by Iranian state media.
CENTCOM said the strikes were conducted in response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization, launching ballistic missiles at U.S. Navy warships on patrol in “regional waters.”
“A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed,” CENTCOM said.
U.S. forces responded by “permanently disabling” the Iranian oil carriers MT Downy, located off the coast of Kharg Island, and MT Stark 1, which was struck near the Iranian coastal city of Jask.
In addition, U.S. forces “completely destroyed” the unladen crude oil carrier MT Kylo in the Gulf of Oman.
CENTCOM said the Kylo, which is also known as the MT Noxen, was struck in “multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship.”