WASHINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. forces on Friday struck and disabled two more Iranian-flagged unladen oil tankers before they entered an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.
CENTCOM "enforced blockade measures against two Iranian-flagged unladen oil tankers attempting to pull into an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman," the command said in a post on X.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS George H.W. Bush disabled both tankers after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks, said CENTCOM.
On Wednesday, U.S. forces disabled an unladen Iranian-flagged oil tanker, Hasna, as it attempted to sail to an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman. An F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS Abraham Lincoln fired several rounds from a 20mm cannon gun to disable the ship's rudder.
"All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran," said the command.
There are currently more than 70 oil tankers that U.S. forces are preventing from entering or leaving Iranian ports, CENTCOM said in another post, noting these commercial ships have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated 13 billion-plus U.S. dollars.
U.S. and Iranian forces traded fire on Thursday when three U.S. Navy destroyers were transiting out of the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM said it was a "self-defense" action while Tehran accused Washington of violating a ceasefire which took effect on April 8.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. warships sustained no damage, downplaying the incident as a "love tap," adding that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains in place. ■