The United States has taken aim at three crude oil tankers from the Islamic Republic of Iran in response to ballistic missile strikes from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday, according to United States Central Command.
The missiles coming from Iran were going after two American Naval ships, but nobody was hurt.
The two tankers hit were near Kharg Island and Jask, and another tanker in the Gulf of Oman was "completely destroyed" and the workers on board were instructed to "abandon ship."
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement on Saturday morning. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
This is the latest response by the U.S. Armed Forces to aggression from Iran, as the U.S. says the Islamic Republic was trying to place mines into the Strait of Hormuz last weekend. After the U.S. responded to that attempt, the Iranian military then tried to hit an American base in Jordan.
"The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan," Trump posted on Tuesday.
"If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!" the president added at the time.
The president has also stressed that he is not currently interested in communicating with the country's leaders. The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this summer that U.S. has said Iran blatantly violated when it was in effect, largely because of strikes against cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
"I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?" Trump posted earlier this week.