Iran targets three US ships and three oil tankers in Hormuz retaliation, IRGC claims

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Iran targeted three oil tankers and three US-affiliated ships in the Strait of Hormuz, presenting the action as retaliation for US strikes earlier on Saturday.

The IRGC also warned ships against using routes through the strait that Iran considers unauthorized. US Central Command had not confirmed the reported strikes as of the publication’s update.

CENTCOM said US forces had struck three Iranian oil tankers, including one near Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil-export hub. The strikes followed what CENTCOM described as ballistic-missile attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on two US Navy ships.

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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.

“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, the head of CENTCOM, said in a statement quoted by the article.

Iran’s military command then threatened more severe attacks against US military vessels if what it called US “evil, insecurity and harassment” of Iranian ships and the naval blockade continued. “The strikes of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces against U.S. military vessels in the region will be more severe than before, and there is a possibility of their expansion,” it said in a post carried by Iranian state media.

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The strikes of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces against U.S. military vessels in the region will be more severe than before, and there is a possibility of their expansion.