Four American Missiles Hit an Iranian Tanker at Kharg Island's Anchorage, Tehran's Tasnim Agency Says

An Iranian tanker was struck by four American missiles on Saturday morning at the anchorage off Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal in the Gulf, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. A Tasnim correspondent reporting from Kharg said local sources described no casualties, and that the tanker's crew was being taken off the vessel.

Neither side confirmed the account. Iranian authorities issued no immediate official announcement, and US Central Command did not respond to a request for comment. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that the strike occurred roughly 10 kilometers, about six miles, from the island, and residents told Iranian outlets they heard multiple explosions near the terminal.

Kharg is the single most important piece of infrastructure in Iran's energy sector. Iran is the third-largest producer in OPEC, and before the war it shipped about 90 percent of its crude through Kharg's jetties. Those flows have been largely severed since the United States imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports in mid-April, itself a response to Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint that carried roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply before the fighting started in late February.

The island has been a recurring target of Trump's rhetoric. On June 11 he said publicly that he wanted to take over Kharg, then withdrew the threat days before Washington and Tehran signed an interim agreement on June 17 that was meant to end the war. That agreement did not hold. On Aug. 31, Trump posted a single line on social media accompanied by an AI-generated video declaring that Kharg Island was being "blown to smithereens." Iranian officials have said any direct attack on Kharg would trigger a strong response.

Fighting resumed in earnest last Sunday, when US forces struck Iranian rocket launchers positioned along the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command has since hit what it described as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defense sites, mine-laying capability, radar installations, maritime assets and communications nodes. Iranian forces reportedly fired anti-ship missiles at vessels in the Strait on Friday, the day before the tanker was hit.

An attack on shipping at Kharg's anchorage, rather than on military targets inland, marks an escalation in the economic dimension of the war. During the March raid on the island, US aircraft struck more than 90 military sites while deliberately leaving the oil and gas infrastructure intact. Hitting a loaded tanker at the terminal itself removes that distinction, and it lands on an Iranian economy already squeezed by five months of blockade.

The market reaction has been steady rather than sudden. Brent crude has been trading above $95 a barrel, up from roughly $70 before the war, and refined product prices in the United States have climbed with it. Iranian officials have not said what cargo the tanker was carrying or where it was bound.