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Brent crude breached $100 a barrel for the first time since July, reaching $100.72 in early Wednesday trading, as Iran announced it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz in what both sides described as the largest single wave of tit-for-tat strikes since the conflict began. At least one seafarer was killed and another reported missing following the attacks. CBS News, citing sources, reported that eight F-15s sustained minor damage in Iran's missile strike on the Al Azraq base and were returned to service, while an A-10 Thunderbolt was more seriously damaged, losing a wing — contradicting the US characterisation of the strikes as entirely ineffective. Iran also said the expanded exclusion zone it is planning would stretch as far as Chabahar, near the Pakistani border, with the Revolutionary Guards saying they would strike 20 targets in response to any future attack on two or three Iranian assets. Meanwhile, fighting has intensified in Yemen, where the World Health Organization says more than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded since August 24, and Pakistan warned that sustained Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia could activate the newly signed Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a mutual security pact involving Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.
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The United States struck five named Iranian tankers — the M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, M/T Riesco, and a fifth vessel near Kharg Island — after the IRGC attempted to target a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles on two consecutive days, with CENTCOM saying crews were ordered to abandon ship before the strikes and that no American personnel were harmed. Iran retaliated by firing 20 ballistic missiles at the Al Azraq base in Jordan used by US forces, claiming strikes on F-35, F-16, and F-15 maintenance and deployment hangars, though Jordan's military said air defences intercepted 18 of the missiles and the remaining two fell in unpopulated areas with no casualties; a US official described the strikes as ineffective. The IRGC also claimed attacks on two US vessels and eight oil tankers, warning crews near Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports to evacuate before striking. Oil prices climbed to $99.49 a barrel in early Wednesday trading, while the Trump administration separately imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian commercial and private airlines and foreign cargo providers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran would lose tankers "every time" it targeted US naval vessels.
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Brent crude rose to nearly $97 a barrel on Monday — up roughly 9 percent over the past five days and approaching a six-week high — after the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reported retaliatory strikes on three tankers and three US-linked vessels. Goldman Sachs has warned that oil could reach $120 a barrel if attacks persist, while pump prices in some European markets have already surpassed previous records. Separately, Iran said it is finalizing a "temporary, safe route" agreement with Oman through the Strait of Hormuz, which it expects to register with the International Maritime Organization within days, even as Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned that US oil and gas infrastructure in the region was "sprawling, accessible and exposed" and vowed to strike back against any further US attacks.
Iran has announced plans to declare a restricted military zone in the Persian Gulf beyond the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest escalation of a six-month-long conflict with the United States that has brought commercial shipping through one of the world's most critical waterways to a near standstill. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said any vessel entering the zone would be placed on a sanctions list, though further details on its boundaries or the practical consequences of blacklisting were not made public.
The announcement came as shipping data from analytics firm Kpler showed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow passage between Iran and Oman through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows — had fallen to its lowest level since May. Only two ships passed through on Saturday and six on Sunday, bringing the ten-day moving average to just ten vessels per day, down from more than fifteen on Friday. The drop followed a fresh round of mutual strikes: the US attacked three Iranian oil tankers off the Iranian coast, while Iran claimed to have hit an American unmanned vessel attempting to enter the strait — a claim the US military flatly denied, calling it
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