U.S. military says it destroyed 5 more Iranian oil tankers in latest escalation

The US military destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday. According to US Central Command, the tankers were targeted in response to recent ballistic missile attacks on a US Navy warship by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The US ship evaded the attack and continued its mission to enforce a blockade of Iranian oil shipments.

The tankers that were destroyed were located in the Gulf of Oman and near Iran's Kharg Island. US Central Command said the crews of the vessels were directed to abandon ship before the strikes. The tankers belonged to a multi-billion-dollar network used to fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its regional allies.

Iranian state-run media reported that Iran launched missiles toward US targets in Jordan in response to the US strikes. However, US Central Command said it had no information to offer on the reported strikes on a Jordanian airbase. This latest exchange is part of a more than six-month-old war between the US and Iran.

Brief written by urgent.news from CBC News, Politico EU, Al-Monitor, The Korea Times, CBS News — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.