Every Iranian attempt to strike a U.S. Navy warship has failed, and America is now destroying Iran’s oil fleet in response.
U.S. Central Command flatly denied Iranian claims Wednesday that its forces had successfully struck two American destroyers. “No U.S. Navy warship has been struck,” CENTCOM stated on X, calling the Iranian claims “completely FALSE.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had claimed it attacked 10 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, including two American warships and eight oil tankers. CENTCOM rejected every part of that claim and confirmed all U.S. ships remained unharmed.
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As originally reported, American forces had already been escalating their response before Wednesday’s exchange. On Tuesday, CENTCOM announced the destruction of five Iranian crude oil carriers after the IRGC launched two separate ballistic missile attacks against a U.S. Navy warship over a 48-hour period. Both attacks failed. No American personnel were injured.
The five tankers destroyed Tuesday were identified as the M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, M/T Riesco, and the M/T Derya. Before striking each vessel, U.S. forces ordered crews to abandon ship. CENTCOM described the tankers as part of a multibillion-dollar oil network used to bankroll the IRGC and its regional proxy forces. “Iran cannot defend them,” CENTCOM said.
That Tuesday operation followed a separate U.S. strike on Saturday, when American forces destroyed three more Iranian crude oil tankers. That action came after the IRGC attempted to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer. Those attacks also failed completely.
Iran widened its response Wednesday by firing ballistic missiles toward Jordan, where American troops are stationed. That effort produced the same result. A U.S. official told Fox News that Iran’s missile barrage was “ineffective in face of integrated air and missile defenses,” adding that American forces maintained full accountability at every location in Jordan.
The pattern here is consistent. Iran keeps swinging and keeps missing. The U.S., meanwhile, is systematically dismantling the oil infrastructure that funds the IRGC’s operations across the region. Eight Iranian tankers have now been destroyed across two operations, with American forces taking care each time to remove crews before striking.
CENTCOM has been unusually direct in its public statements throughout this exchange, pushing back on Iranian claims in real time and making clear that no attack has come close to succeeding. The broader confrontation in the region continues, but on the current scorecard, Iran has lost a significant piece of its oil fleet and has nothing to show for it.
