U.S. Central Command has rejected claims by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that Iranian forces successfully struck two U.S. Navy destroyers operating in the Middle East, insisting that none of the attempted attacks hit American warships.
CENTCOM issued the denial on September 9 as military tensions between Washington and Tehran continued to escalate, with both sides reporting attacks involving naval forces and energy-related assets.
U.S. Military Says Iranian Attacks Failed
According to CENTCOM, Iranian forces have made repeated attempts to attack American naval vessels, but the U.S. military maintains that all of those operations failed to hit their intended targets.
The command described the IRGC’s assertion that two U.S. destroyers had been struck as false and said no American Navy warship had been successfully hit.
CENTCOM’s position is consistent with its September 5 announcement that a U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer evaded multiple ballistic missile attacks launched by the IRGC. The command said no American personnel were injured.
Washington Turns Attention to Iran’s Oil Tanker Network
While disputing Tehran’s account of damage to American vessels, CENTCOM said U.S. forces had successfully targeted 10 Iranian tankers over the previous week.
The U.S. military described the vessels as components of a multibillion-dollar network used to generate funding for the IRGC and Iranian-backed groups.
CENTCOM argued that the tanker strikes were imposing an economic cost on Iran while demonstrating Tehran’s inability to protect vessels associated with the network.
Five Iranian Crude Carriers Destroyed in September 8 Operation
The tanker campaign included a major U.S. operation on September 8 in which CENTCOM said five Iranian crude oil carriers were destroyed after the IRGC twice attempted to target a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles.
The vessels were identified as M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, M/T Riesco and M/T Derya. Four were targeted in the Gulf of Oman, while the Derya was struck near Kharg Island.
CENTCOM said crews were instructed to abandon the ships before U.S. forces attacked and rendered the vessels inoperable.
Earlier Strikes Took Out Three More Tankers
Days earlier, on September 5, American forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers after what CENTCOM described as attempted ballistic missile attacks against two U.S. Navy warships.
The M/T Downy and M/T Stark 1 were disabled, while the M/T Kylo, also known as Noxen, was destroyed in the Gulf of Oman after its crew was ordered to leave the vessel, according to the command.
CENTCOM said those tankers were also associated with the same network it accuses of financing the IRGC and its regional partners.
Conflicting Narratives Deepen U.S.-Iran Confrontation
The competing statements highlight an increasingly aggressive information battle accompanying the military confrontation between Iran and the United States.
Iran has claimed successes against American naval assets, while CENTCOM maintains that U.S. ships have avoided the attacks and that American forces have instead inflicted substantial losses on Iranian maritime assets.
The U.S. account of individual battlefield events remains CENTCOM’s characterization of the operations, while Tehran has presented a sharply different version of the confrontation.
Tanker Strikes Signal Growing Economic Pressure on IRGC
The focus on crude carriers indicates that Washington’s military response is extending beyond directly attacking Iranian military installations.
By targeting vessels that the United States alleges belong to a shadow financing network, American forces are seeking to damage an economic system CENTCOM says helps sustain IRGC operations and associated groups.
CENTCOM’s latest statement portrayed the destruction of Iranian tankers and the reported failure of attacks against American warships as evidence of a widening imbalance in the maritime confrontation between the two countries.
