Iran's Revolutionary Guards attack leaves US tanker burning

Hostilities between the United States and Iran intensified after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched a missile strike against a US tanker in the Gulf waters. Consequently, the US tanker was reported to be on fire as a result of the strike.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a statement, as reported by state television in Tehran and cited by AFP, on Thursday (5 March 2026), claimed that the US tanker was ‘hit by a missile in the northern Gulf’. ‘It is currently burning,’ the IRGC statement said, referring to the US tanker targeted by its forces.

Independent confirmation of Iran’s missile attack on the US tanker has not yet been obtained.

The incident occurred as the IRGC announced that it now has ‘full control’ of the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and is a vital shipping lane for oil and gas.

The IRGC warned that any vessel attempting to traverse that strategic waterway faces the risk of damage from errant missiles or drones.

The Strait of Hormuz has been closed since the United States and Israel launched a wave of coordinated attacks against Iran on Saturday 28 February local time. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes against targets in Israel and U.S. bases in Gulf countries.

Earlier, the IRGC claimed to have attacked a US warship in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of kilometres from Iran’s border. The US destroyer, refuelling from a US tanker in the Indian Ocean at the time, was said by the IRGC to have been struck by a Ghadr-380 missile and a Talaeieh missile.

The IRGC described the missile strike as a ‘catastrophic attack’ because it targeted a vessel in waters more than 600 kilometres from Iran’s southern coast.

With the destroyer being refuelled from the American tanker when hit by the missile, the IRGC intelligence conclusion was that the attack caused a ‘widespread fire’ on both ships, sending plumes of smoke into the sky over the sea.

The US has not yet responded to the claims of Iranian attacks.