US forces disable three Iranian-linked tankers after IRGC missile attacks on Navy warships

American forces permanently disabled two crude oil tankers and completely destroyed a third near Iranian waters on September 5, 2026, following missile attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on two US Navy warships. The Joint Maritime Information Center, which has been tracking maritime threats in the region since early 2026, reported the incidents as the latest enforcement action under a US naval blockade of Iran that began in April.

What happened and where

The three vessels targeted were the M/T Downy, permanently disabled off Kharg Island; the M/T Stark 1, permanently disabled near Jask; and the M/T Kylo, also known as Noxen, which was sailing without cargo and was completely destroyed after its crew was directed to abandon ship.

Crews aboard all three vessels were warned before US forces executed the strikes. CENTCOM confirmed no casualties among tanker personnel, a detail the command emphasized publicly alongside its statement of intent.

US Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper framed the strikes explicitly as economic retaliation. The message was straightforward: attacks on US military vessels will cost Iran commercially, not just diplomatically.

The blockade and the shadow fleet

The United States imposed a naval blockade against Iran on April 13, 2026. Since then, US forces have conducted multiple disablements of vessels attempting to move cargo in violation of that blockade.

The ships targeted fit into what CENTCOM has been calling Iran’s shadow fleet, a collection of tankers that move Iranian crude oil outside formal shipping channels to sidestep sanctions. The M/T Kylo’s alternate name, Noxen, reflects exactly that kind of dual-identity operation common across sanctioned shipping networks.

Kharg Island, where the M/T Downy was disabled, is Iran’s largest oil export terminal and handles the vast majority of the country’s crude shipments. Jask, where the M/T Stark 1 was disabled, sits near the mouth of the Gulf of Oman, a strategic chokepoint for tanker traffic leaving Iranian waters into the broader market. Enforcement actions at both locations in a single day effectively bracketed Iran’s primary oil export geography.

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