US forces shot down and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates, reported another Iranian missile and drone attack.
The attack casts serious doubt on a month-long ceasefire that the United States insists is still in effect. Washington is awaiting Iran’s response to its latest proposal for a deal to end hostilities, reopen the strait and roll back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped to receive a “serious offer” from Iran later on Friday.
The US military said on Friday that its soldiers disabled two Iranian tanks that were trying to break the American blockade on Iranian ports. A few hours earlier, the military said it prevented an attack on three Navy ships and attacked Iranian military facilities along the route.
Iran has largely blocked the world’s most important waterway since the US and Israel went to war in Feb. 28, resulting in higher fuel prices and volatile global markets. The US has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Meanwhile, the UAE Ministry of Defense said three people were injured after its defense aircraft fired two ballistic missiles and three drones launched by Iran. It was not clear whether all were successfully infiltrated.
The US says it responded to the strait attack
The U.S. military released video of two Iranian warships being hit by a U.S. warplane on Friday. Earlier in the week, a US military aircraft shot down the rudder of a tank which the US military said was trying to break the law it had banned.
Late Thursday, the U.S. military said it prevented an Iranian attack on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and attacked Iranian military facilities. It said no American ships were hit.
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“They’re threatening the American people, they’re going to be blown up,” Rubio told reporters on Friday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US military’s “hostile” action, saying it was against the principle of the ceasefire. “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US chooses a reckless military attack,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told X.
A US strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo ship that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary reported. It is not clear whether this ship is one of the two ships that the United States allowed to crash.
US President Donald Trump has insisted that the ceasefire is still in place. He reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept a deal to reopen the strait and scale back its nuclear program.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country is in touch with the US and Iran “day and night” in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.
Pictures show clear oil sliding from an Iranian terminal
Satellite images reviewed by the Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran’s main export hub.
Images taken on Friday show a 71-square-kilometer (27 square mile) slick and appear to show oil still leaking from the airport, said Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.
Daniel estimated that the equivalent of nearly 80,000 barrels of oil had spilled from Kharg Island since the slick was first detected by satellite images on Tuesday. It is not known whether the bloodshed was caused by a malfunction, an airstrike or something else.
“This is the danger of fighting in an oil-rich area,” said Daniel, adding that there is little chance of clean-up efforts in the Gulf waters, which have become an active war zone.
He said that this spill seems to be spreading in the southwest and in the next two weeks it may reach the shores of the UAE, Qatar or Saudi Arabia.
Nina Noelle, an expert on international disaster operations with Greenpeace Germany, said on Friday that initial assessments and recent images show the spill is starting to disperse and it seems unlikely that it will have an impact on the world. He said depending on the wind, tides and current conditions, slick sections could still affect some critical areas of the ocean.
“It’s likely that it will wash up on the beach under the current conditions,” Noelle said.
The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the US military had tracked down the spill or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island. Based on photos taken earlier this week, the bloodshed came before the latest round of US strikes.
Rubio says it is ‘unacceptable’ for an Iranian agency to control congestion
Rubio said Friday that it was “unacceptable” for Iran to have a government agency that inspects animals and customs vessels seeking to bypass the crisis.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping data company, reported on Thursday that Iran has created such an agency, known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.
Iran’s attempt to legitimize control of the channel has raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial vessels stuck in the Persian Gulf and unable to access the open sea.
“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, an important waterway for the export of oil, gas, fertilizers and other petroleum products, while the US blockades Iranian ports.
An oil tanker operating in China was attacked along the way. China continued to import oil from Iran despite the successful closure of the waterway.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern, saying the tank was registered in the Marshall Islands with Chinese crew on board. No victims were reported.
An oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April arrived off the coast of South Korea on Friday carrying one million barrels of crude oil. South Korea, last year, which imported more than 60% of its pollution in this way, raised the prices of gasoline and other fuel products.
Finley and Biesecker reported from Washington. Associated Press Correspondents Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Giada Zampano and Nicole Winfield in Rome, Seung Min Kim in Washington, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, and Simina Mistreanu in Bangkok contributed.
