CENTCOM commander warns of greater economic costs if Iran attacks US forces, vows to destroy Iranian oil fleet if necessary

CENTCOM Commander Gen. Brad Cooper. [Getty Images]
CENTCOM Commander Gen. Brad Cooper. [Getty Images]

The US military's Central Command said Saturday (local time) that it struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on two US Navy vessels.

CENTCOM said in a statement that US forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired ballistic missiles at two US Navy ships on patrol in the waterway.

CENTCOM said it disabled the tanker Dawni, located near Iran's Kharg Island, and the Stark 1, near the Jask area. It also completely destroyed the Kylo, an unladen tanker operating in the Gulf of Oman.

CENTCOM said it ordered crews to abandon the vessels before striking them multiple times to render them inoperable, and said the tankers had been providing financial support to the IRGC and Iranian proxy forces.

"I have a clear message for the IRGC: you attack two of our ships, we strike three of yours and impose a greater economic cost," CENTCOM Commander Gen. Brad Cooper said, warning that the US would destroy Iran's oil transport fleet if necessary. The statement, issued under Cooper's name, signaled a policy of responding to any attack on US forces with a larger-scale retaliation.

CENTCOM said a US aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded the Iranian attack, and that there were no US casualties.

Iranian media had earlier reported hearing explosions near Kharg Island, Iran's largest oil export terminal, and said US forces had attacked Iranian tankers.

The Trump administration had shifted its Iran strategy toward tightening economic sanctions, but has been engaged in a military exchange with Iran since striking an Iranian mine-laying rocket launcher in the Strait of Hormuz on Aug. 30.


yg@heraldcorp.com