Iran’s state media said Saturday that U.S. forces had struck an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of the strategically important Kharg Island, days after the two sides engaged in the most intense fighting in weeks.
The United States has not confirmed the Iranian reports. A spokesman for the U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kharg Island, in the Persian Gulf, is Iran’s primary hub for oil exports, which have been squeezed for weeks by a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Iranian news outlets, including the state broadcaster, said that at least one American missile had hit the tanker, and published images of a ship emitting black plumes of smoke.
Tasnim, a semiofficial news outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported that the attack took place on Saturday morning, and that the tanker’s crew had survived and were being evacuated.
The reports 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 week, U.S. forces carried out a barrage of strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships and American forces in the region.
One of the strikes hit a wedding in southern Iran, killing five people and wounding dozens, according to Iranian officials.
President 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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