The United States and Iran engaged this Tuesday in a new exchange of attacks, a further step in the escalation of their hostilities in a war that Vice President J.D. Vance resists describing as such. The Central Command, responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East, confirmed the destruction of five tankers linked to Iran in the Persian Gulf in response to two attacks carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard against a U.S. warship in the previous two days.
On its social media account X, Central Command (CentCom) stated that the attacked tankers were part of the network that helps fund the Iranian regime and the groups Tehran sponsors in the Middle East and were linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. One of them, the Derya, was hit near Jarg Island, the heart of the Iranian oil industry. The other four – the Kaviz, the Charminar, the Horizon 1, and the Riesco, were destroyed in the Gulf of Oman.
“U.S. forces instructed the crews to abandon the ships before the vessels were attacked and disabled,” the statement notes, specifying that no U.S. soldiers were injured in the operation. Central Command also recalls that this weekend U.S. forces destroyed three Iranian tankers after the Revolutionary Guard attempted to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and a destroyer.
Prior to the Central Command statement, the Iranian agency Tasnim, linked to the IRGC, had reported the attack on one of the tankers near Jarg. The state broadcaster IRIB reported another vessel attacked in the port of Jask, slightly south of the Strait of Hormuz, also without casualties, reports Efe.
In response to these attacks, the Revolutionary Guard warned that Kuwaiti and Bahraini tankers would be “targets of attacks,” and urged the crews of those ships to immediately leave the ports of both Arab countries, U.S. allies, whom the IRGC accused of being accomplices in Washington’s actions. Almost immediately, that Iranian entity reported it had launched attacks against U.S. bases in Jordan and against two destroyers of the enemy country. Central Command has not confirmed these alleged strikes, but Jordan claims to have shot down 18 of 20 missiles launched by Iran.
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“We are witnessing a gradual escalation, both regarding the repeated Iranian attempts to attack U.S. warships, now confirmed (by the Central Command statement), and the quantity and quality of missiles used against U.S. bases,” noted Hamidreza Azizi, from the Crisis Group organization, specialized in conflict prevention, on social media X.
As tensions intensify on the ground, the United States also stepped up its economic pressure on Iran this Tuesday, sanctioning 36 entities and individuals linked to the aviation sector, within what the Donald Trump Administration has called Economic Pariah Operation of sanctions and tariffs, direct and indirect, to try to isolate the enemy country.
The sanctions in this case focus on 27 airlines still operating in Iran, entities and individuals supporting the country’s main private airline, Mahan Air, and financial and supply channels for the sector.
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