US forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. Meanwhile, the UAE reported another Iranian attack with missiles and drones.
The attacks cast further doubt on the fragile month-long ceasefire that the United States insisted remained in place. Washington is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal to reach an agreement to end the war, reopen the Strait, and reduce Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive a “serious offer” from Iran later Friday.
The US military said on Friday that its forces disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to break through the US blockade imposed on Iranian ports. Hours ago, the army said it had thwarted attacks on three naval ships and struck Iranian military facilities in the strait.
Iran has mostly closed the vital waterway for global energy since the United States and Israel went to war on February 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling global markets. The United States imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports.
Meanwhile, the UAE Ministry of Defense said that three people were injured after air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles and three drones launched by Iran. It was not clear whether all of them were successfully intercepted.
The United States says it responded to an attack in the Strait
The US military published a video of the two Iranian tankers when an American fighter plane bombed their smokestacks on Friday. Earlier this week, a US military aircraft fired on the rudder of a tanker that the US military said was trying to break through the blockade it was imposing.
Late Thursday, the US military said it had thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iranian military facilities in retaliation. It added that no American ships were hit.
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“They are threatening Americans, and they are going to get blown up,” Rubio told reporters on Friday.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as the “hostile” US military action, saying it violated the ceasefire. “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the United States chooses a reckless military adventure,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on the X website.
An overnight US raid killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others on board a cargo ship that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with the Iranian judiciary reported. It was not clear whether the ship was one of the two tankers that the United States admitted to bombing.
US President Donald Trump insisted that the ceasefire is holding. He also repeated his threats to resume large-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the Strait and halt its nuclear program.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that his country is in contact with the United States and Iran “day and night” in an attempt to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace agreement.
Pictures show a clear oil slick off the Iranian terminal
Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf originating from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude oil export terminal.
Amy Daniel, CEO of marine intelligence company Windward AI, said images taken on Friday show the slick covering about 71 square kilometers (27 square miles) and appear to show oil still leaking from the terminal.
Daniel estimated that the equivalent of about 80,000 barrels of oil had leaked from Kharg Island since the spot was first discovered by satellite images on Tuesday. It is not known whether the leak was caused by a malfunction, an airstrike, or something else.
“This is the danger of fighting in an oil-rich region,” Daniel said, adding that it was unlikely that any clearance efforts would be launched in Gulf waters that have become an active war zone.
He said that the leak appears to be spreading southwest of the country and is likely to reach the shores of the Emirates, Qatar or Saudi Arabia during the next two weeks.
Nina Noel, an international crisis operations expert at Greenpeace Germany, said on Friday that an initial assessment and recent images show that the leak has begun to spread and appears unlikely to impact the ground. Depending on wind, waves and current conditions, parts of the slick will likely impact some sensitive marine habitat, she added.
“It will most likely dissipate overseas under the circumstances,” Noel said.
The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the US military was tracking the leak or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island. Based on images taken earlier this week, the leak occurred before the latest round of US strikes.
Rubio: It is unacceptable for an Iranian agency to control the Strait
Rubio said on Friday that it was “unacceptable” for Iran to have a government agency screening and taxing ships seeking to pass through the strait.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a company that specializes in shipping data, said on Thursday that Iran has established such an agency, known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.
Iranian efforts to formalize control of the canal have raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial ships detained in the Persian Gulf and unable to access the open sea.
He asked: “Will the world accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?” Rubio said. “What is the world willing to do about it?”
Iran has effectively closed the Strait, a vital waterway for shipping oil, gas, fertilizers and other petroleum products, while the United States blockades Iranian ports.
An oil tanker driven by a Chinese crew was attacked near the strait. China continued to import oil from Iran despite the actual closure of the waterway.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its concern, saying that the tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands and had a Chinese crew on board. No injuries were reported.
The oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April, off the coast of South Korea, arrived today, Friday, carrying one million barrels of crude oil. South Korea, which last year imported more than 60% of its crude oil through the Strait, has set a cap on the prices of gasoline and other petroleum products.
Finley and Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ross Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Giada Zampano and Nicole Winfield in Rome, Seung Min Kim in Washington, Sarah El-Deeb in Beirut, and Simina Mestrino in Bangkok contributed.
