US Sinks 5 Iranian Tankers as Houthis Hit Saudi Oil Sites — SkimNews
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- Houthis struck four Saudi cities — Khamis Mushait, Abha, Najran, and Jazan — with drones and missiles, wounding 73 people and igniting blazes at Saudi Aramco assets and a Saudi airbase, with NASA satellite images showing thick black smoke over the Jazan refinery.
- U.S. Central Command destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers — four in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg Island — after Iran's IRGC targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles on two consecutive days, with U.S. forces ordering crews to abandon ship first.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran "will lose tankers" for every attempt to strike U.S. naval ships, framing the tanker strikes as a direct deterrent.
- Iran's IRGC retaliated with a ballistic missile attack on a U.S. base near Al Azraq in eastern Jordan, per Iranian state media; Jordan and the U.S. military had not immediately confirmed the strike.
- Iran threatened to target oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, and an LNG tanker was damaged at the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan, though it was unclear who was responsible.
- Oil prices rose to their highest level since July 23, though benchmark Brent remained below $100 per barrel despite the disruptions.
- The U.S. Treasury announced new aviation sanctions aimed at grounding Iran's airlines, while U.S. Central Command said the destroyed tankers were part of a shadow network funding the IRGC's "Axis of Resistance" — including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shi'ite militias, and the Houthis.
Why it matters: The war is becoming a mutual economic siege: the U.S. is blockading Iranian oil exports while Iran's retaliatory threats against tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports risk widening the conflict across the Gulf. 73 Saudis wounded and five Iranian tankers sunk in a single day shows the war's footprint now spans from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, yet oil stayed below $100 — suggesting markets still see this as containable.
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