Iran’s IRGC says hit 3 oilers in Hormuz Strait, 3 US vessels elsewhere in retaliatory strikes

Tehran: The navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said Saturday it had targeted three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three US-affiliated vessels elsewhere in retaliation for the US attacks on Iranian tankers earlier in the day.

The three tankers that were struck in the strait were crossing the waterway through the “unauthorized” route, the navy said in a statement published on the IRGC’s official news outlet Sepah News, adding the other three vessels were hit in other regions.

The navy also urged all vessels in the Gulf and near the Strait of Hormuz to refrain from being “deceived” by the US Army and any suspicious movement to transit the waterway through “unauthorized” routes, otherwise they will be targeted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, Iran’s state-run IRIB news agency reported that three Iranian oil tankers were attacked by the US Army off Iran’s southern coasts.

Following the incident, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman of Iran’s main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned the United States against continuing its attacks on Iranian vessels as well as the naval blockade against the country.

“If the malice and insecurity against and harassment of Iranian ships, as well as the anti-Iran naval blockade continue, the strikes by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran against US military vessels in the region will become more severe than before, and there is a possibility of their expansion,” Zolfaghari said in a statement carried by Iranian media.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Friday that the US military may soon strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain — a fortified site near Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility — while trying to downplay the conflict with Iran as “small potatoes.”

“We may hit Pickaxe very soon,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to the underground facility where Washington says Iran has moved some of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Meanwhile, Trump tried to downplay the conflict with Iran, arguing that it was not a war. “It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent,” Trump said, though he has repeatedly described the conflict as a “war” while avoiding the term at times.

“I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump claimed.

Following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Tehran restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, barring vessels linked to the United States or Israel, while US forces imposed a naval blockade targeting vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas.

IANS