US military says it destroyed five Iranian oil carriers after attempted missile attacks

The US military destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers on September 8. According to US Central Command, the destruction of the tankers was in response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeting a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days. The US warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol regional waters.

The five tankers destroyed were identified as the Kivik, Charminar, Horizon 1, Riesco, and Derya, with the latter being located near Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz and the others in the Gulf of Oman. The crews of the vessels were told to abandon ship before the attacks. This is the second time US forces have targeted Iranian tankers in less than a week in response to attacks on US military vessels.

Iran also launched missiles toward US targets in Jordan, according to Iranian state-run media. The US military had no information on the strikes on the Jordanian airbase. Iran has vowed to hit back by targeting oil carriers near US-allied Gulf states.

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, The Korea Times, Free Malaysia Today, France 24, Middle East Eye — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.