CENTCOM hits three Iranian tankers after missiles at two U.S. ships

U.S. Central Command said Saturday that American forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at two Navy warships. A carrier and a guided-missile destroyer evaded the shots. No American personnel were harmed, CENTCOM said. The reply was not a briefing. It was three hulls.

CENTCOM named them: the M/T Downy, permanently disabled off Kharg Island; the M/T Stark 1, disabled near Jask; and the unladen M/T Kylo, also known as the Noxen, destroyed in the Gulf of Oman after the crew was told to abandon ship. Adm. Brad Cooper, the command’s officer, put the ratio in one sentence: if you shoot at two of ours, we take out three of yours. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote that if Iran shoots at U.S. ships, the United States will destroy and sink their oil tankers.

If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours.

Kharg handles about 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports. The president has threatened the island and has not ordered it hit. Reuters, CNN and Politico timed the strikes to Saturday. The World desk files the overnight. The pump, on Labor Day Sunday, is still $4.15.