DUBAI, Sept 5 (Reuters) – An Iranian tanker was hit by U.S. forces on Saturday near Iran’s key oil export hub, Kharg Island, in the Gulf, the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.
According to a Tasnim correspondent from Kharg, the tanker was hit by four U.S. missiles in the area of Kharg Island’s anchorage.
Tasnim quoted local sources as saying there were no casualties and the tanker’s crew was being evacuated.
There was no immediate official announcement by Iranian authorities and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on August 31 in a one-line social media post accompanied by an AI-generated video that Kharg Island was being “blown to smithereens”. Iranian authorities have vowed a strong response if Kharg is attacked.
Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and exported 90% of its crude via Kharg Island before the war, but flows have been disrupted since a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil exports began in mid-April.
Trump said on June 11 that he wanted to take over Kharg Island, but then said a threatened U.S. military operation there was off the table for now, days before Tehran and Washington signed an interim agreement aimed at ending the war on June 17.
A U.S. attack on Kharg would heap further pressure on Iran’s oil industry and its wider economy, which is already reeling from the U.S. naval blockade.
The U.S. imposed its blockade on Iranian ports after Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply before the war.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue, William Mallard, Tomasz Janowski and Sharon Singleton)
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