U.S. military destroys 5 Iranian oil tankers, triggering retaliation against American base in Jordan

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis reported more than 30 Saudi strikes on several regions on Wednesday, a day after the rebels launched major attacks on their neighbor, injuring dozens of people.

There has been no official comment from Saudi Arabia about the Houthi report.

Saudi authorities previously said that Houthi attacks caused temporary shutdowns at oil sites and injured 73 people early Tuesday. The rebels reported Saudi airstrikes following the attacks.

Deadly fighting reignited in Yemen last week, when the Houthis launched a major campaign to seize territory near the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The strait has become an increasingly important route for Saudi oil since Iran  effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, choking Gulf exports.

CBS/AFP

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, was trading at over $99 early Wednesday, in a continuation of the upward trend seen since August.

Meanwhile, the benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $94.17 a barrel.

Before the war began in February, a fifth of the world’s oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz but since then, traffic has plummeted, with only small periods of temporary and limited recovery.

Iran has launched missiles toward U.S. targets in Jordan, Iranian state-run media said, following the latest American strikes.

It’s the latest tit-for-tat retaliation after the U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers following two attacks on a U.S. warship by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard over the past two days.

U.S. Central Command, when asked about the strikes on the Jordanian air base, said it had no information to offer.

Jordan’s military said its air defense systems intercepted 18 ballistic missiles launched toward its territory and two others fell in places where people do not live. It says it had no reports of casualties.

Jordan is a staunch U.S. ally that hosts American forces, making the kingdom’s military bases a target of repeated Iranian strikes.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy also warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for the U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers.

The U.S. military’s Central Command confirmed Tuesday it “destroyed” five oil tankers associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In a statement accompanied by video footage of the operation, CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to a set of unsuccessful Iranian missile attacks against a U.S. warship in recent days.

Four of the tankers were struck in the Gulf of Oman, according to CENTCOM, and a fifth was hit near Kharg Island, an island in the Persian Gulf that serves as Iran’s primary terminal for crude oil exports. It alleged the ships were part of Iran’s shadow fleet, a network of tankers used by Iran to export oil and generate revenue for the regime.

“American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” CENTCOM said.

CBS News had reported on a U.S. attack against Iranian tankers earlier Tuesday.

CENTCOM also struck three Iranian oil tankers last weekend in retaliation for an earlier attempted Iranian attack against U.S. Navy ships.