Moment US forces strike two Iranian oil tankers as tenuous ceasefire moves closer to collapse
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New video shows the moment US forces conducted airstrikes on two 'massive' Iranian oil tankers on Friday after they allegedly attempted to breach President Donald Trump's blockade.
The vessels were brought to a halt after their smokestacks were hit in the attack, according to US Central Command.
Footage shows thick black plumes of smoke billowing from the ships after they were struck on Friday.
A senior US official told Fox News: 'These were Very Large Crude Carriers... massive, empty ships trying to make it back to Iran.'
The strikes came after reports of clashes between Iranian and US forces in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
The attacks cast more doubt on a tenuous month-old ceasefire that the US has insisted is still in effect.
Washington is awaiting Iran's response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive 'a serious offer' from Iran later on Friday.
The US military said its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran's ports.
Hours earlier, the military said it thwarted attacks on three US Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities in the strait.
Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices which has rattled world markets.
The US has imposed its own blockade of Iran's ports.
Earlier in the week, a US fighter jet shot out the rudder of a tanker that the military said was attempting to breach its blockade.
Late on Thursday, the US military said it thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iranian military facilities in response. It said no American ships were hit.
'They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,' Rubio told reporters on Friday.
Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned what it called 'hostile' US military action, saying it violated the ceasefire.
'Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.
A US strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran's judiciary reported.
It was not clear if the ship was one of the two tankers that the US acknowledged striking.
Mr Trump has insisted the ceasefire is holding and has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing attacks if Iran doesn't accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear programme.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the US and Iran 'day and night' in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.
Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf emanating from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran's main crude export terminal.
The images taken on Wednesday show the slick covering roughly 95 square kilometers (36 square miles).
Windward AI, a maritime intelligence firm, said it first detected the spill in satellite images taken on Tuesday and that the slick was spreading southwest at a rate of about two kilometers (1.2 miles) an hour.
Nina Noelle, an international crisis operations expert with Greenpeace Germany, said: 'If the slick continues drifting southward, there could also be risks to ecologically sensitive and protected marine areas in the Gulf.'
The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the US military was tracking the spill or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island.
Based on the imagery taken earlier this week, the spill occurred before the most recent round of US strikes.
Rubio said on Friday that it is 'unacceptable' for Iran to have a government agency that vets and taxes ships seeking passage through the strait.
Lloyd's List Intelligence, a shipping data company, reported on Thursday that Iran has created such an agency, known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.
The Iranian effort to formalise control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial vessels bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea.
Rubio said: 'Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway? 'What is the world prepared to do about it?'
Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of oil, gas, fertiliser and other petroleum products, while the US is blockading Iranian ports.
A Chinese-crewed oil tanker was attacked near the strait. China has continued to import oil from Iran despite the effective closure of the waterway.
China's Foreign Ministry said the tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands with Chinese crew on board. There were no casualties reported.
An oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April arrived off South Korea's coast on Friday with one million barrels of crude oil.
South Korea, which last year imported more than 60 per cent of its crude through the strait, has capped prices of gasoline and other petroleum products.
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