US Strikes Three Iranian Oil Tankers After Iran Targets Navy Warships
Indian Coast Guard vessels douse a fire aboard the tanker MT New Diamond off Sri Lanka in September 2020 (file photo, unrelated incident) - illustrative of a tanker fire, not the September 2026 strikes. Photo: Indian Coast Guard, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons
The U.S. military struck three Iranian oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on September 5, saying it was retaliating after Iran fired missiles at an American aircraft carrier and destroyer - the sharpest escalation yet in a war that has run, on and off, since February 2026.
The U.S. military struck three Iranian oil tankers on September 5, 2026, saying the action was retaliation after Iran fired missiles at American Navy warships. According to U.S. Central Command, two tankers were "permanently disabled" and a third was destroyed, with the strikes hitting vessels off Kharg Island and near Jask, in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
Schematic locator map, not to scale, showing the approximate locations of the September 5 strikes near Kharg Island and Jask. Map: Liberia Today
The U.S. Navy said an aircraft carrier and a destroyer patrolling the region evaded what it called "multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks," and that no American personnel were injured in the exchange.
The strikes mark a resumption of hostilities after roughly a month of relative calm in a conflict that first erupted on February 28, 2026, with U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran. Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, the original trigger for the confrontation, broke down after a memorandum of understanding reached in June failed to hold. Days earlier, at least five people were killed in separate U.S. strikes on southern Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply normally passes, has become a central flashpoint of the conflict, with Iran asserting control over the waterway while the U.S. Navy has been assisting merchant vessels with safe passage.