Iran Threatens US Bases and Interests After Reported Attack on Oil Tanker
Iranian officials warned that US military bases and interests in the region would be targeted if Iranian oil tankers came under attack, after Tasnim reported that a small Iranian tanker was struck by a US missile near Kharg Island.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Iran has issued a series of increasingly forceful warnings to the United States after Iranian media reported that a small oil tanker was targeted by a US missile near Kharg Island in the Gulf, with Tehran warning that American military bases and interests in the region would be targeted if Iranian vessels came under attack.
According to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, the tanker was targeted approximately four nautical miles from Kharg Island, near the island’s anchorage area, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.
Local sources cited by the agency said the incident caused no loss of life and that the tanker’s personnel had begun evacuating the vessel.
Tasnim reported that relevant authorities were investigating the extent of the damage and other dimensions of the incident, adding that further information would be released later.
Separately, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that two explosions were heard a short time earlier near Kharg Island in the Gulf.
The agency said the sound of the explosions was heard from the waters of the Gulf, but there had so far been no indication of fire or smoke in the area.
Amid the reported incident, Ibrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, issued a warning to Washington.
Zolfaqari said the US military had threatened to target three Iranian oil tankers.
He warned that any attack on Iranian vessels would prompt Iran’s armed forces to target US military bases and interests in the region.
The warning came as tensions between Iran and the United States continued to rise, with Tehran reiterating that protecting its oil tankers is a red line and that any US military action against its vessels would draw a forceful response.
The naval force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also issued an urgent warning in response to what it described as the US military’s attack on Iranian oil tankers.
In a statement attributed to the IRGC Navy command, the force warned all crews of oil tankers located in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports to leave their vessels immediately, whether the ships were anchored offshore or inside the ports.
The statement described Kuwait and Bahrain as hosting US forces and participating in what it called their “malicious actions,” and warned that the tankers would be targeted.
The IRGC Navy said the warning was issued amid what it described as “malicious practices” by the US military and its targeting of several oil tankers belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The warning adds a further escalation to Tehran’s response following the reported incident near Kharg Island, extending the threat to Iranian oil tanker crews operating from Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports.