Iran and US hit tankers in biggest wave of attacks on shipping since war began

(Reuters)

CAIRO/WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Sept 9 – Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, ‌in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.

The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing.

The incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means.

Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in ​Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would ​sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said Iran would soon release maps of a new, enlarged off-limits zone at sea that would extend ⁠as far as Chabahar on the coast near Pakistan.