International

Iranian military warns of more strikes aimed at US warships as hostilities grow

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday warned US military forces in the Gulf of Oman that it will target more military vessels after reports emerged that an aircraft carrier was forced to withdraw from the theatre under threat.

Changez Ali

News editor6 September 20262 min read

Iranian military warns of more strikes aimed at US warships as hostilities growPhoto: QOM

Tehran: Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it will escalate targeting US warship in the Gulf of Oman as reports emerged that more than one US navy vessel in the region came under ballistic missile attack and may have been forced away from the front lines of the theatre.

Conflicting claims have arisen in the last 48 hours about how events have unfolded since the US launched a series of airstrikes on the southern Iranian coast, one of which killed five people at a wedding, according to the official Iranian Tasnim news agency. US vice president JD Vance publicly addressed the strike on Friday, saying the US military was investigating the incident after an analysis published by Reuters showed it "likely resulted from a direct hit by a US munition."

Since then the US is confirmed to have struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, severely damaging two and allegedly destroying one according to US CENTCOM. According to a statement by CENTCOM, a US aircraft carrier and a destroyer "successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks." In response, U.S. forces launched a counterstrike that "completely destroyed" a sanctioned shadow fleet tanker with IMO number 9189146 (operating as Kylo or Noxen) in the Gulf of Oman.

The UK's maritime trade organisation said it was unable to confirm if there had been casualties in the strikes, but Iran's official Tasnim news agency reports that only one tanker was severely damaged and there were no reported casualties among the crew. Shipping monitor TankerTrackers, citing a video of the strike, said the crews were believed to be safe.

Iran has countered that it targeted the US vessels after the strikes against its oil tankers that it says are civilian vessels and protected under international law. Multiple news agencies report that at least five Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the aircraft carrier USS George Washnigton and that it was forced to retreat along with an accompanying destroyer after sustaining damage, according to the Iranian military.

A spokesperson for the Iranian military said that Iran will carry out more severe and potentially expanded strikes targeting American military vessels if the US continues to harass Iranian shipping. This latest escalation by the US is likely to make this a self fulfilling promise..