Did Iran hit a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz?
Tehran claimed a Sunday strike on an unmanned U.S. vessel; Centcom called it a lie after Saturday tanker hits and record U.S. diesel.
Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military called the claim false.
"The report came from Iranian state media and it's a total lie," Capt. Tim Hawkins, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told the Associated Press. The claim landed a day after Washington said it hit three Iranian oil tankers following ballistic-missile attacks on Navy warships.
Centcom said an aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded the missiles and no American personnel were hurt. U.S. forces then struck a tanker off Kharg Island, another near Jask, and an unladen vessel in the Gulf of Oman after the crew was told to abandon ship. Two carriers were described as permanently disabled and the third destroyed. Centcom said the ships belonged to a shadow network funding Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours," Adm. Brad Cooper said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put it bluntly Saturday: if Iran shoots at U.S. ships, America will destroy and sink Iranian oil tankers.
Tehran answered with threat language. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned of a "faster, heavier, and more painful response" and said Americans must understand "before it is too late" that the "rules of the game have changed," according to state-media translations carried by the BBC and CNBC. Experts called the missile shots at a carrier and destroyer a sharper naval turn than earlier commercial-shipping attacks.
The fight is six months old. U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began Feb. 28. A 60-day ceasefire expired last month, relative calm broke last week, and both capitals are again trading blows around the waterway that once carried roughly one-fifth of the world's oil.
Households already feel it at the pump and in freight. U.S. diesel averaged a record $5.85 a gallon Friday, up from about $3.71 a year earlier. Brent finished Friday at $96.28; West Texas Intermediate was last near $91.48. Markets are closed for Labor Day and reopen Monday with that energy tax still on trucking, food delivery, and small-business costs.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright tried to steady the picture Sunday. He said about 9 million barrels a day are getting through the strait and that, with regional pipelines, flows are "probably two-thirds or more of pre-conflict" levels — still short of normal and still dependent on U.S. Navy escorts. Separately, Wright said the United States may never reach a nuclear deal with Iran.
What is known is concrete: a denied Iranian ship-strike claim, confirmed U.S. tanker strikes, open Iranian threats of heavier retaliation, and American fuel costs already at wartime highs. What is not known is whether Monday's reopen prices calmer shipping — or another leg higher in diesel and crude.