US hits three Iranian oil tankers

Video posted by CENTCOM showed large fireballs and billowing flames after projectiles slammed into the ships. The three ships targeted were "part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies," it said.

"Iran has no means by which to defend them," it added. No US soldiers were hurt after a destroyer and aircraft carrier "successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks," it said.

CENTCOM's commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, said: "Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost—taking out three of yours.

"The strikes come as Washington insists that it is working to economically strangle Iran, including a blockade of its ports, while keeping alive the threat of military action. Iran, for its part, has blocked commercial traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz by threatening shipping that doesn't have its permission to transit.

The two sides exchanged fire earlier this week, with the US saying it was targeting the IRGC's ability to attack commercial shipping while Iran fired on US military bases in nearby Jordan.

Iran strongly condemned United States strikes on three Iranian crude oil tankers Saturday as "illegal and aggressive", accusing Washington of carrying out the attacks as part of a naval blockade and economic war against the country.

"These illegal and aggressive actions, carried out in continuation of the US military aggression against Iran and as part of its naval blockade and economic war against our homeland, constitute a clear violation of Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the UN Charter, a war crime, and a clear threat to international peace and the security of commercial shipping," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry stressed Iran's determination to "firmly defend its sovereignty and national interests" against what it described as US "state terrorism and aggressive actions". It said such actions included "the continued naval blockade and economic war, as well as attacks on commercial vessels".

The ministry said responsibility for the consequences of continued US "aggressive and interventionist actions" in the region would rest with Washington and its "accomplices and partners". The Pentagon has launched a lie-detector dragnet to comb through high-ranking military officials and identify who leaked information about US munitions stockpiles,.

In July, reports emerged that the United States was rationing munitions—its missile interceptors, in particular—over supply concerns after several months of fighting Iran. Administration officials vehemently denied those reports, with President Donald Trump saying "we have a lot of ammunition, different types," while acknowledging that "for some of the more sophisticated stuff, we'd certainly like to have more.

"Late Friday, The New York Times reported that some 50 members of the military's Joint Staff—the Pentagon's planning and advisory staff—were being required to take polygraph tests as part of an investigation into how classified stockpile information made its way into journalists' hands.

CBS News later also reported the wide-scale use of lie detectors, while adding that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had not been tested. Both outlets cited unnamed officials.

Asked by AFP about the reports, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, refused to comment on "internal personnel or investigative matters," but said that it "takes all leaks of classified national security information extremely seriously and investigates accordingly.

""Securing classified information is critical to ensuring the security of the United States and of our troops deployed around the world," Parnell added. Both the Times and CBS noted the scale of the polygraph testing.

Lie-detection testing is routine during background screenings and security clearance renewals for government staff with access to the most sensitive state secrets. But the wide-scale deployment of the detectors as part of a leak investigation was rare, if unprecedented, the outlets reported, citing analysts and unnamed officials.