Iran retaliates against US allies after its oil tankers destroyed

DUBAI — The Middle East war intensified Tuesday with Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launching strikes on several Saudi cities, further embroiling a U.S. ally in the conflict, while U.S. forces hit multiple Iranian oil tankers and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Jordan.

The Houthis attacked four cities in the south of Saudi Arabia, wounding 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the 6-month-old war.

As global oil markets priced in the Saudi attacks, the U.S. military's Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers in response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice in the prior two days. No Americans were harmed, the U.S. said.

"Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.

Iran then retaliated with a ballistic missile attack on a U.S. base near Al Azraq in Jordan, according to an IRGC statement carried on state media. Iranian state media published video of what it said were Iranian missiles launched at Jordan.

Though Iran said its missiles inflicted heavy damage, Jordan said its air defenses intercepted 18 of the 20 Iranian missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas, and there were no casualties.

Iran has targeted U.S. allies in the region throughout the war, including Jordan several times, killing two U.S. military personnel during one strike in July.

A separate IRGC statement said it also attacked two U.S. destroyers, state media reported. The U.S. military had yet to respond to the reports.

After a month of calm, Iran and the U.S. resumed exchanging fire in recent days, driving the price of benchmark Brent crude oil to its highest level since July 23.

The war has been marked by pauses followed by periodic flare-ups, with Iran still able to launch missile and drone strikes on its neighbors and threaten oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz despite U.S. attacks that degraded much of its conventional forces and extracted a toll on its already ailing economy.

The Houthis, who control most of Yemen's populated areas including the capital, further pressured U.S. allies by periodically disrupting shipping on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, at the entrance to the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory Tuesday, using drones and missiles to strike a Saudi airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait as well as Saudi state oil company assets in the cities of Abha, Najran and Jazan.

NASA satellite images showed a thick cloud of black smoke over the Jazan refinery and a column of white smoke rising from an oil distribution center in Abha.

Saudi authorities described blazes at the sites and said women and children were among the 73 people hurt. The reports of such large numbers of wounded suggested the attacks were among the biggest carried out against Saudi Arabia since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28.

The U.S. said it destroyed four IRGC crude oil carriers in the Gulf of Oman and a fifth near the oil hub of Kharg Island, after Iranian media reported some of the attacks. "American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable," the Central Command statement said.

In response, Iran threatened to target oil tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports, according to a statement carried by state media. A maritime security source reported a liquefied natural gas tanker was damaged in the Emirati port of Khor Fakkan, though it was unclear who was responsible.

Houthi attacks on southwestern Saudi Arabia could worsen the war's global economic effects by disrupting Middle East energy supplies beyond the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade. That war calmed in recent years, but a ceasefire there broke down.

In recent days, Saudi-backed Yemeni forces of a government based in the south launched a multipronged offensive on Houthi-held areas, after the Houthis tried to advance on government-held positions. The government, driven by the Houthis from the capital 12 years ago, says it now aims to recapture all Houthi-held territory.

The U.S. Treasury announced new aviation-related sanctions Tuesday that it said were aimed at grounding Iran's airlines.

Washington is trying to increase the flow of oil to world markets by guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz, while cutting off Iran's exports with a blockade.

Tehran announced new measures to seal off the strait, saying it will soon unveil details of a "maritime exclusion zone" that will extend from the perimeter of the U.S. blockade, through the strait and into the Persian Gulf itself.

The wider war turned into a test of wills between the U.S. and Iran, with each side hoping economic pressure from competing blockades will force the other to yield.

Central Command said the tankers it destroyed Tuesday were part of a shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran long supported what it calls an "Axis of Resistance," which includes the Hamas militia, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iraqi Shi'ite militias and the Houthis.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it captured a U.S. submersible near the strait. A U.S. official told Reuters that an underwater military drone malfunctioned more than a day earlier, adding it did not have classified sonar or radar equipment on board.