CAIRO / WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it fired ballistic missiles at a U.S.-used base near Al Azraq in Jordan and attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz — including two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers — a day after U.S. Central Command said American forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, according to Reuters, Al Jazeera, and NBC News.

The exchange pushed international Brent crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since July, NBC News reported. Reuters separately said the politically sensitive U.S. average retail diesel price hit a fresh all-time high above $5.94 a gallon, while NBC put the national gasoline average at $4.22 Wednesday.

Tankers first, then Jordan and Hormuz

CENTCOM said Tuesday’s tanker strikes — naming carriers including M/T Kaviz, Charminar, Horizon 1, Riesco (Gulf of Oman), and Derya (near Kharg Island) — answered two Iranian ballistic-missile attempts on a U.S. Navy warship over the prior two days. The command said crews were told to abandon ship before the vessels were struck, released video it said showed Riesco sinking, and stated the warship “successfully evaded” the attempts with “no American personnel” harmed.

“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 in Colombia, per Reuters and Al Jazeera.

The IRGC said it answered with “fierce” missile strikes on the Al Azraq base — claiming hangar damage — and later said its forces attacked two American vessels and eight tankers in a Hormuz area Tehran has labeled prohibited. Iran’s Foreign Ministry framed the Jordan and vessel strikes as “legitimate defence” after U.S. tanker hits and called those tanker attacks a “war crime.” There was no immediate U.S. confirmation of Iranian claims of heavy damage to destroyers or tankers.

Jordan’s military said its air defenses engaged 20 ballistic missiles, destroyed 18, and that two fell in unpopulated areas with no casualties. A U.S. official told Reuters Iran’s Jordan strikes were ineffective and all American troops were accounted for. UK maritime security agency UKMTO reported several merchant ships struck by disabling fire around the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman; Iraqi port officials told Reuters a fuel-oil tanker, the New Andros, caught fire after a drone strike in Iraqi waters with no reported casualties among 22 crew.

Oil markets and the Hormuz choke

Reuters described Wednesday’s shipping claims as the biggest declared tit-for-tat wave on shipping since the six-month U.S.–Iran war began. A fifth of world oil once moved through Hormuz; Iran has choked transit while Washington runs a port blockade and says it has guided some tankers through. NBC noted Brent was still below the early-war peak near $120 but up more than 65% year to date, with U.S. crude also climbing above $95.

President Donald Trump claimed Monday on social media that oil “will drop precipitously… when we WIN the war with Iran,” floating gasoline as low as “two dollars a gallon,” NBC reported — a political promise that collided with Wednesday’s tape. Concentrated wartime targeting of commercial tankers and bases is the policy choice driving the price spike; voters, not press conferences, will feel the pump.

Separately, Houthi attacks on Saudi energy sites Tuesday wounded 73 and set facilities ablaze, adding a second theater risk to Middle East supply — already covered in our prior Saudi report.

Sources