'US Oil Tanker Currently On Fire': Iran Says It Hit American Ship In Gulf With Missile

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Iran has reportedly struck an oil tanker in the Gulf, which belonged to the United States, Euro News reported. The strike was conducted through a missile which was fired on Thursday, 5 March, in the latest Iranian attack on the region's energy infrastructure. There was no immediate confirmation of the incident or of a similar attack that Iran claimed earlier this week.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that the ship was hit by a missile“in the north of the Persian Gulf” and“is currently on fire”.

The IRGC also said that any military or commercial vehicle that belongs to the US, Israel or any other European country that comes to its rescue or supports it“will not be allowed to pass through”.

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The Guards said in their Thursday statement carried by state media that, in time of war, passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be under the control of the Islamic Republic.“In the time of war, passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be in the hands of the Islamic Republic,” Iran's Revolutionary Guards said, as per the state media.

“If they are observed, they will certainly be hit. We had previously said that, based on international laws and resolutions, in times of war, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have the right to control the passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Al Jazeera quoted the IRGC as saying, citing the Iranian state media.

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With IRIS Dena being sunk off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, 4 March, which killed at least 80 people, the US-Israel-Iran conflict has widened beyond Gulf states and into Asia.

After the ship was struck in International waters, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that Washington would“bitterly regret" the precedent it had set.

"We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are," General Kioumars Heydari, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told state TV. He added that Iran did not care how long the war lasts. Tehran had also rejected any further negotiation talks with the United States.

The stakeholders on the other side, too, do not seem to budge. According to a statement issued by Israel's defence ministry, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also told his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz,“keep going until the end - we're with you."

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has also praised the US's war efforts. He said that the US was“doing very well on the war front.”

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