WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers Tuesday in response to the latest attacks on its warships and Tehran responded to U.S. targets in Jordan, the latest series of back-and-forth attacks that have brought both sides back to open hostilities in a war that has raged for more than six months. After the US strikes, Iran launched missiles at US targets in Jordan, Iranian state media said. Jordan’s military said its air defense systems intercepted 18 ballistic missiles launched toward its territory and two others fell in places where no one lives. He said he has no reports of victims. Jordan is a staunch US ally that hosts US forces, making the kingdom’s military bases a target for repeated Iranian attacks. US Central Command said it had no information to offer. The latest attacks are part of a dual economic and military approach by President Donald Trump as he fights to end the war. On Tuesday, the Trump administration also imposed sanctions on additional elements of Iran’s aviation industry, targeting more than two dozen commercial and private airlines as well as foreign cargo service providers, in its new effort to isolate Tehran from its remaining trading partners. Both the United States and Iran are trying to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passed before the war began. Rising energy prices are posing political problems for Trump and his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections. A barrel of international standard Brent crude oil briefly rose to $99.46 on Tuesday. U.S. forces also destroyed three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard attempted to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and destroyer with ballistic missiles, warning that “if necessary, it would destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.” Iran later said it planned to announce a new “exclusion zone” near the Strait of Hormuz for ships seeking to transit. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will not allow Iran’s attacks to go unanswered. “Iran continues to try to attack American warships. And every time they do it or try to do it, they’re going to lose tankers. And I think you’ll see that again today,” Rubio told reporters Tuesday when asked about the latest attacks on Iran during a trip to Colombia. Sign up for the Ground Game newsletter: your guide to the biggest stories in American politics, policy and elections. Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, warned that such back-and-forth attacks can only risk more retaliation and a greater impact on the global economy. “There is no kinetic solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem,” he said on social media. “Each attempt to impose one only brings Washington and Tehran closer to an escalation that may become increasingly difficult to control.” US Central Command said the military attacked the tankers on Tuesday after the Revolutionary Guard attacked a Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice in the past two days. “The US warship successfully evaded Iranian attack attempts and continued patrolling regional waters. No US personnel were injured,” it said in a statement. He said the Iranian tankers destroyed on Tuesday were the Kivik, Charminar, Horizon 1 and the Riesco in the Gulf of Oman. The US military also destroyed the ship Derya, which was near Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz. The statement said the crews of all five vessels were told to abandon ship before the attacks. Iranian state television also reported on the US attacks, saying US forces attacked Iranian oil tankers near the southern port of Jask and near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. He said the crews were evacuated. An Iranian state television reporter in Jask said an Iranian oil tanker was attacked near the coast of Yekbeni. State television later reported that the US military attacked a second oil tanker near Jask waters. Separately, state television reported that another Iranian oil tanker was attacked in the Kharg Island anchorage area. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy had on Tuesday warned oil tanker crews near the ports of Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately abandon their vessels, saying the ships could be attacked in retaliation for US attacks on Iranian oil tankers. He accused Kuwait and Bahrain of hosting US forces and assisting in the attacks. A US blockade of Iranian ports has hurt the country’s economy by limiting its oil exports, while the US military has been helping a limited number of ships transit a route through the Strait of Hormuz off Oman. Tehran wants ships to follow its chosen route through the strait, which before the war was considered an international waterway.
