Moment US forces strike two Iranian oil tankers as tenuous ceasefire moves closer to collapse

US forces struck two Very Large Crude Carriers on Friday, sending thick black smoke billowing from their smokestacks after the empty tankers allegedly tried to breach President Trump's blockade of Iranian ports. The precision hits brought the vessels to a halt, according to US Central Command, in a direct challenge to Tehran's attempts to evade restrictions amid ongoing clashes around the Strait of Hormuz.

The action casts fresh doubt on a tenuous ceasefire now one month old, even as Washington awaits Iran's response to a proposal aimed at reopening the critical waterway, rolling back its disputed nuclear program, and ending the conflict that began February 28. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope for "a serious offer" from Tehran later that day, while bluntly warning that threats to Americans would be met with force: "They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the strikes on X as a "reckless military adventure" that violates the ceasefire, claiming every diplomatic opening prompts US aggression. Hours earlier, US forces had thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the strait and hit military facilities in response, with no American vessels damaged. A separate overnight strike killed at least one sailor and injured ten aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire.

Satellite imagery reviewed by The Associated Press revealed an oil slick covering roughly 95 square kilometers emanating from Kharg Island, Iran's main crude export terminal. Detected Tuesday by Windward AI and spreading southwest at two kilometers per hour, the spill—occurring before the latest strikes—prompted Greenpeace Germany's Nina Noelle to warn of risks to ecologically sensitive marine areas in the Gulf if it drifts southward.

Iran has largely blocked the Strait of Hormuz since the war's start, spiking global fuel prices and bottling up hundreds of commercial vessels. The US counters with its own port blockade, including a fighter jet disabling a tanker's rudder earlier in the week. Rubio slammed Iran's new Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which vets and taxes ships, asking: "Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?"

Trump insists the ceasefire holds and has threatened full-scale bombing if Iran rejects the deal. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reported round-the-clock contacts with both sides to extend the truce. Yet with China still importing Iranian oil and a Chinese-crewed tanker attacked near the strait, the question lingers whether any party is truly prepared to force the waterway back open.

Original reporting: Dailymail.com