US strikes 3 Iranian oil tankers after saying warships were targeted with ballistic missiles

forces struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with ballistic missiles, the American military said Saturday, warning that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.” Experts called it a dangerous escalation after Iran’s previous attacks at sea targeted commercial shipping.The strikes — a day after U.S. President Donald Trump sought to minimize the conflict as “small potatoes” — keep up a new tilt back toward fighting after six months of on-again, off-again war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on the country on Feb.

Both sides have sought to inflict both military and economic pain, and negotiations have collapsed.The military’s statement said an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling in the region and no U.S. It wasn't clear when the Iranian missiles were fired. The statement said that two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.The U.S.

statement called the tankers part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.A spokesperson with Iran’s joint military command later warned that strikes against U.S. military ships would be more severe, if the U.S. continues to interfere with Iranian shipping, the state broadcaster reported.That Iran targeted a U.S.

aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile “indicates that Tehran is becoming increasingly willing to accept risks it previously sought to avoid, including directly threatening some of the most important U.S. military assets in the region,” Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said on X.Iran had reported a strike near Kharg IslandEarlier, Iranian state television had said that four U.S. missiles struck a tanker about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil.

Kharg Island has been repeatedly targeted during the war, including in U.S. strikes on military sites there in March.The U.S. said that one tanker was struck off Kharg Island and another was struck near Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz.

The unladen tanker was hit in the Gulf of Oman, and the U.S. said its crew had been “directed to abandon ship.” The statemen…