IRGC says it attacked 10 ships, including two US vessels
Trump says war will end right after midterm elections
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Jordanian air defenses operate to intercept projectiles fired by Iran in Ash-Shajarah. PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON/DUBAI:
Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing.
Iran also said it had fired ballistic missiles at a base used by US forces in Jordan. Attacks by both sides since the end of August have shattered a month of relative calm, with the US and Iran hitting military, shipping and energy assets.
The Revolutionary Guards said they would sharply escalate their response to any further attacks, hitting 20 targets if the enemy struck two or three. Iran would soon release maps of a new, enlarged off-limits zone at sea that would extend as far as Chabahar on the far reaches of Iran’s coast near Pakistan, the Guards said.
The Americans said they destroyed five Iranian oil tankers overnight, releasing video of ships ablaze before they sank. The US military’s Central Command called its attacks a response to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting a US Navy warship twice with ballistic missiles over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the US said.
Washington has announced a new policy of attacking Iranian tankers in retaliation for fire that threatens its warships, and says it has hit 10 so far over the past week.
“Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
Iran said it fired on two US ships and eight tankers in response.
One seafarer was killed aboard the oil products tanker Hercules Star while at anchorage off Dubai and another crew member was missing, the vessel’s charterer, Peninsula, said. Maritime security sources said it may have been hit by a drone.
Two Iraqi port officials said a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of fuel oil, the New Andros, had caught fire after being struck by a drone in Iraqi waters. There were no reports of casualties among the 22 crew.
Iran also threatened oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to a statement carried by state media. A maritime security source reported a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged in the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan.
The IRGC also said on Wednesday it had fired ballistic missiles at a base used by US forces near Al Azraq, in eastern Jordan. Jordan said its air defences had intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with two falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas.
A US official said Iran’s strikes in Jordan were ineffective and all American troops were accounted for.
An explosion was heard in the southern part of the Iranian port city of Jask, coming from the sea, Iran’s Fars news agency reported late on Wednesday. It said no details were available on the source or cause of the blast.
President Donald Trump predicted that the war with Iran will end “immediately after” the US midterm elections in November because Tehran was trying to influence the vote but would not be able to hold out more in the face of US economic pressure.
“I think war is going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer. They’re desperate to try and affect the election,” he told reporters before departing for the Republican National Convention in Dallas.
Oil prices would also come down right after the election, Trump said on Wednesday, once the war is over, while acknowledging diplomatic talks are still a possibility but not preferred.
“Yes, a negotiation could possible happen, but it’s not something we’re looking at,” Trump said.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday that Saudi warplanes carried out 54 airstrikes across various Yemeni provinces over the past 12 hours, adding that they would “not go unanswered and unpunished”.
Brent crude futures breached $100 a barrel on Wednesday to settle at their highest close since late May.
Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled up $3.29, or 3.4%, at $101.21 a barrel, after touching a high of $101.58. US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up $3.02, or 3.25%, at $96.05 a barrel. Both benchmarks closed at their highest since May 22.
