Iran said yesterday 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 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 targeting 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.
President Donald Trump said he believed the Iran war 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 any longer.
He said energy prices that have been elevated due to the Iran war will not come down until after the midterm elections, which are nearly two months away.
“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump told reporters before heading to Texas for the Republican Party’s midterm convention.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to all sides to ‘exercise utmost restraint’ and avoid inflaming the already volatile situation in and near the Strait of Hormuz.
The US forces 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.
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