THE NEW YORK TIMES: U.S. strikes three Iranian ‘shadow network’ oil tankers, military says

The United States and Iran each said on Saturday they had attacked the other’s ships in the region, setting off a new round of retaliatory attacks days after some of the most intense fighting in weeks.

The U.S. military said it had struck three Iranian oil tankers Saturday, in response to attempts by Iran to attack two U.S. warships. Iran‘s Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for those attacks on a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyer, saying it had fired ballistic missiles at them for “harassing Iranian ships.”

Hours after the U.S. strikes, the Revolutionary Guard announced it had targeted six additional ships to punish Washington — three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three other ships that it said were U.S. affiliated. The U.S. military did not immediately confirm Iran’s retaliation.

Iran’s armed forces said in a statement published on state media Saturday that its attacks against U.S. “military vessels” would grow more severe and expand if Washington kept targeting Iranian ships and maintained its naval blockade of Iran’s ports.

Even as President Donald Trump has tried to pivot from a military campaign to one focused on choking Iran’s economy, fighting has flared in recent days, centered on the economically vital Strait of Hormuz. The bursts of attacks are characteristic of the back-and-forth cycle of violence that analysts say the Trump administration has found itself bogged down in, six months into the conflict.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement Saturday that it had struck three Iranian crude oil carriers. It said it had “permanently disabled” one off the coast of Kharg, and another near the southern port city of Jask. U.S. forces “completely destroyed” a tanker with no oil on it in the Gulf of Oman, after directing the crew to abandon ship, the statement said.

Iran’s state media later confirmed the attacks, saying the United States had struck an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of the strategically important Kharg Island, Iran’s primary hub for oil exports, and two other Iranian tankers in the area of Jask, on the Gulf of Oman. There were no reports of casualties.

The U.S. military said the three Iranian ships were part of a “multibillion-dollar shadow network” that funds Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its allied militant groups abroad. It described the strikes as retaliation, after the Guard attempted to hit two U.S. Navy ships with ballistic missiles. It was unclear when those alleged attacks happened.

“A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks,” the statement said. “No American personnel were harmed.”

Adm. Brad Cooper, the U.S. Central Command commander, said the United States would impose an “even higher economic cost” on Iran if it shoots at U.S. ships, and that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” according to the statement.

The Revolutionary Guard, in a statement carried by state media, said the three oil tankers it targeted in retaliation for the U.S. strikes were “traveling along an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz.”

The strikes come as the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway on Iran’s southern coast, has become central to the conflict between Iran and the United States. The strait previously served as a major shipping route for oil and other key commodities, but Iran has sought to control it since the country was attacked by the United States and Israel earlier this year.

The U.S. Navy has been helping ships navigate a southern route through the strait, near the coast of Oman, drawing retaliation from Iran. On Monday, two oil tankers were attacked within minutes of each other while trying to pass through.

There had been about a month of relative calm in the conflict between Iran and the United States until late August, when the two sides traded fire. This past week, U.S. forces carried out a barrage of strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. forces in the region.

One of the strikes hit a wedding in southern Iran, killing five people and wounding dozens, according to Iranian officials.

Trump issued a renewed threat to Iran on Friday, saying that the United States may strike Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected Iranian nuclear site, “very soon.”

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