US-Israel and Iran Exchange Claims of Destroying Each Other's War Fleets

A week into the conflict between the United States and Israel against Iran, both sides have claimed to have attacked the other’s war fleet. Citing detikNews, AFP reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its forces attacked a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, which they described as a United States asset. ‘The tanker bearing the trade name Louise P, Marshall Islands-flagged, one of the United States’ terrorist assets, was attacked by a drone in the middle of the Persian Gulf,’ the Revolutionary Guards said on their website Sepah News. Al Jazeera later reported that the claim came from the Israeli military, which said 16 aircraft of the IRGC’s Quds Force had been destroyed. The aircraft were said to be operating outside Iran’s borders during night-time operations in Tehran. Israel also announced in an official statement that it had launched a ‘massive wave of strikes’ on the Iranian capital, including an attack on Mehrabad Airport. The airport is used by the Quds Force as a hub to transfer weapons and money to armed groups across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. The claims have not yet been independently verified, and there has been no comment from Iranian authorities.