US Hits Iranian Tankers Under New 'Tanker-for-Tanker' Policy

The US struck two Iranian government tankers and about 100 targets under its first-of-its-kind 'tanker for tanker' retaliation policy.

US forces struck two Iranian government-owned tankers anchored off Iran's coast north of the US naval blockade line, with drones firing missiles into their engine rooms, according to Axios reporting cited by multiple outlets. The strikes were the first application of a new "tanker for tanker" policy approved by President Donald Trump, marking the first time the US has directly retaliated against Iranian ships rather than merely blocking them. Officials said around 100 targets were hit overall, including IRGC air defense sites, radar systems, mine-laying capabilities, communications sites, and anti-ship missile and drone launchers.

Until now, American forces had only prevented Iranian tankers from violating the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, not attacked them in reprisal. The Jerusalem Post, citing Axios, reports the shift is designed to deter Iranian attacks on commercial shipping after a string of projectile strikes on tankers using the southern Hormuz route.

The commercial shipping trade has documented the toll: Splash247 reports the 320,780-dwt Senegal Prosperity was hit by three projectiles on August 31, went dead in the water with a list to port, and had its crew evacuated off Oman, while the Saudi-owned VLCC Sidr was attacked minutes earlier. CENTCOM confirmed a wave of strikes against IRGC infrastructure, saying they followed attempted attacks on commercial shipping and American forces. A US official told Axios the strikes had degraded Iran's capabilities and bought at least a month of reduced threat levels for tankers.

Iran retaliated in defiance of Trump's warning that any response would bring a much harder blow, launching roughly 25 ballistic missiles toward Jordan — of which only about half reached Jordanian airspace, Jordanian authorities said, intercepting ten — plus drones at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait and two intercepted drones at Erbil in Iraq. Jordan News reports no casualties were reported from the intercepted attacks.

Iran says shrapnel from a US strike fell on a wedding celebration in the village of Kouhestak in southern Iran. CNN, citing Iranian state media, reports at least four people were killed, including a toddler, with Iranian officials reporting 68 wounded, more than 50 of them women and children; CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the US military "never targets civilians" and noted the reports originated from Iranian state media. NPR separately reports seven people were killed in strikes on Khuzestan province. The escalation has pushed oil futures above $94 a barrel, per CNN, with gasoline at $4.10 a gallon.

Diplomacy is running alongside the fighting. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would immediately return to the June interim ceasefire memorandum if Washington did the same, NPR reports, while Iranian media say Pakistan and Qatar are pressing both sides to revive the Islamabad agreement. Trump, however, dismissed any deal's value, saying he prefers America's position with "almost total control of the Hormuz Strait." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would "economically asphyxiate" Iran, with two more bank sanctions expected within weeks, CNN reports — leaving the strait's tanker war set to define the conflict's seventh month.