US and Iranian Forces Trade Direct Fire at Sea as CENTCOM Destroys Five More Iranian Tankers

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Tuesday that its forces destroyed five Iranian crude carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ballistic missiles at an American warship twice in two days. Four of the tankers were hit in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg Island. American forces directed the crews to abandon the vessels before striking them, and CENTCOM said the ship the IRGC targeted evaded both attacks and that no American personnel were harmed. The strikes bring to eight the number of Iranian tankers destroyed or disabled since Friday, when CENTCOM disabled the M/T Downy off Kharg Island and the M/T Stark 1 near Jask and destroyed the M/T Kylo near the Gulf of Oman in answer to missiles fired at an American aircraft carrier and a guided missile destroyer. Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said Washington would impose "an even higher economic cost" for attacks on its ships.

Iran widened its threats in response. The IRGC's naval arm told all tanker crews in Kuwaiti and Bahraini waters to leave their vessels immediately, saying ships anchored or docked at those ports would be treated as legitimate targets, and it accused both governments of assisting American operations. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, said American energy assets in the Gulf would be struck if the United States attacked Iranian oil and gas facilities, writing that "strike our assets and you get struck." He was replying to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the United States would destroy and sink Iranian tankers if Iran fired on American vessels. Ghalibaf had already said the era of "proportionate responses" has ended, while acknowledging inflation, unemployment and exchange-rate volatility inside Iran.

Crude rose on the exchange of fire and on a separate attack to the south. Brent climbed about $1 to $98 a barrel after Houthi forces struck Saudi energy installations and other targets in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, touching $99.46 intraday, its highest since July 24, with West Texas Intermediate above $93. Saudi authorities said the attacks caused fires and temporary shutdowns at several facilities and wounded 73 people.

Tuesday's exchange overtakes the maritime exclusion zone Tehran announced but has not yet imposed. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the zone will begin at the line of the American naval blockade, extend toward the Strait of Hormuz and continue into the Persian Gulf, with any vessel transiting without coordinating with Tehran added to an Iranian sanctions list. Stephen Zunes, founding chair of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco, told Al Jazeera that Iranian ships and aircraft policing such a zone would be highly vulnerable to American attack. Commercially, enforcement may not be the deciding factor. A ten-day average shows about 10 vessels a day passing the strait, the lowest since May, with no very large crude carrier recorded leaving since Wednesday. Crude and petroleum liquids moving through Hormuz averaged 4.9 million barrels a day in the second quarter, against 21.6 million a day in the final quarter of 2025 before the war.

The legal and diplomatic ground remains contested. Washington and Gulf governments treat the strait as an international waterway open to transit passage. Russia and China vetoed a Gulf-sponsored Security Council resolution on reopening the strait in April, calling it biased against Iran, while Beijing has said freedom of navigation there is a shared interest. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said Tehran permits shipping for China, Russia, India and other governments it considers friendly. Bloomberg reported that Iran describes a separate arrangement with Oman for a temporary safe corridor as near completion.