Iran slams US ´reckless military adventure´ after 2 more oil tankers attacked

U.S. forces on Friday struck and disabled two more Iranian-flagged unladen oil tankers before they entered an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said, reported Xinhua. CENTCOM "enforced blockade measures against two Iranian-flagged unladen oil tankers attempting to pull into an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman," the command said in a post on X. A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS George H.W. Bush disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks, said CENTCOM. On Wednesday, U.S. forces disabled an unladen Iranian-flagged oil tanker, Hasna, as it attempted to sail to an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman. An F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln fired several rounds from a 20mm cannon gun to disable the ship's rudder. "All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran," said the command. There are currently more than 70 oil tankers that U.S. forces are preventing from entering or leaving Iranian ports, CENTCOM said in another post, noting these commercial ships have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated 13 billion-plus U.S. dollars. U.S. and Iranian forces traded fire on Thursday when three U.S. Navy destroyers were transiting out of the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM said it was a "self-defense" action while Tehran accused Washington of violating a ceasefire which took effect on April 8. U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. warships sustained no damage, downplaying the incident as a "love tap," adding that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains in place. Meanwhile, the Iranian army said Friday its naval forces have seized an "offending" oil tanker named "Ocean Koi" that sought to disrupt the country's oil exports by abusing the regional circumstances. It said in a statement that the tanker was carrying Iran's oil and sought to harm Iran's national interests by designing a "special operation" in the Gulf of Oman. The naval forces have directed the tanker to Iran's southern coasts and handed it over to Iran's judicial authorities, it said. In a separate statement, the army said its naval forces targeted U.S. destroyers with cruise missiles, rockets, and combat drones during the past hours, in response to their attacks on Iranian oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz and in Iran's territorial waters. It said the destroyers have changed course and left the area. Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly condemned the overnight U.S. attacks, calling them a violation of an April 8 ceasefire between the warring parties. Also on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi slammed U.S. choice of a "reckless military adventure" when "a diplomatic solution is on the table" again. Writing on social media platform X, Araghchi said Iranians "never bow to pressure" and "diplomacy is always the victim." He also claimed that Iran's missile inventory and launcher capacity now stand at 120 percent, exceeding estimates provided by the U.S. intelligence community. The developments followed new flare-ups overnight between the warring parties, which were triggered by U.S. attacks on two Iranian vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and reported U.S. airstrikes on Iran's southern cities and capital Tehran in cooperation with some regional states. Following the attacks, Washington claimed that it has no intention of escalation and that the April 8 ceasefire still holds.