US military says it struck three Iranian tankers after American warships came under missile attack

Summary

The US military said on Saturday that American forces struck three Iranian crude-oil tankers after a US aircraft carrier and destroyer came under what it called multiple “unprovoked Iranian attacks.” US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said no American personnel were injured and warned that the United States could destroy Iran’s “limited and exposed oil fleet” if necessary. The Pentagon said two tankers were permanently disabled and a third, which was unladen, was destroyed. Washington alleged that the vessels were part of a shadow network financing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and regional armed proxy groups. Iranian media reported that a tanker near Kharg Island was attacked and that its crew survived. Iran’s state broadcaster later claimed Iranian forces had targeted three tankers and three US vessels in retaliation, though that claim was not independently confirmed in the article. The attacks followed the resumption of US-Iran strikes after roughly a month of relative calm and the collapse of negotiations. The article also reports civilian casualties from earlier US strikes, including four people killed at a wedding and at least 156 deaths in a February 28 attack on a Minab school compound. A reported preliminary US inquiry attributed the school strike to outdated targeting coordinates; its full findings remain unpublished.