Oil tops $100 per barrel as U.S. and Iran launch new attacks

Salama Saeed and her son fled for their lives when shelling and gunfire from Yemen’s Houthi rebels engulfed their village, forcing her to leave other children behind.

They are among the nearly 20,000 people driven from their homes since the Iranian-backed rebels launched a broad offensive in areas near the Red Sea last week, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Choking back tears as she shelters in a rudimentary hut of wood and straw, the mother describes her anguish for her four adult children who were trapped by the fighting.

“I fled on my own, terrified, on one of my sons’ motorcycles. We have nothing left,” said the woman in her fifties from the Muthalath al-Udain area of Hodeida province.

“We were forced to leave because of the Houthis,” she told the AFP news agency, adding: “My children are still there — they couldn’t get out. I weep for them every day, waiting for them to escape.”

Yemen’s long-running conflict has flared into life after a four-year truce unravelled in July, as regional tensions rocketed during the Iran war.

The Houthis are trying to seize territory along the Red Sea, where they have been attacking Saudi tankers. Meanwhile, a wave of Houthi attacks on Tuesday set Saudi oil sites ablaze and wounded dozens of people. On Wednesday, the rebels reported more than 40 Saudi reprisal strikes.

Saeed and her son found refuge in a camp for the displaced in Khokha on the Red Sea coast, about 19 miles from their village.

“There’s no aid. We’re exhausted,” she said. “Who will give us aid? Every time we’re displaced from one place, war comes and forces us to leave again! Where can we go? We’re tired of this situation.”

CBS/AFP

An oil tanker leased by the Iraqi Oil Tankers Company was hit by an unknown source while inside Iraqi territorial waters, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil said Wednesday in a statement posted to Facebook.

The incident “resulted in minor material damage to the vessel’s hull,” the ministry said, adding no one was killed or wounded and no oil leaked from the ship.

“The relevant authorities are following up on the circumstances of the incident and are working to verify the source of the impact and its causes,” the ministry said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that it will hit 20 targets for every two or three U.S. strikes, while outlining the country’s conditions for ending the war.

“If the enemy wants an end to this situation, it must, while completely stopping the war, refrain from making threats again, the army of the Zionist regime must withdraw from Lebanon, the blockade of Yemen must end, $24 billion of Iran’s frozen assets must be released, and it must refrain from any interference in the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities,” said IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi, according to pro-regime Iranian outlet Akharin Khabar. 

“We even have the capability to hit targets at this distance of 400 kilometers (250 miles), and some time ago, we targeted an American aircraft carrier at a distance of 500 kilometers (310 miles),” Mohebi claimed, adding that Iran has “reached a point where if the enemy hits two or three of our targets, we will respond firmly with 20 targets.”

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Tuesday night that it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to recent attempts by Iran to attack U.S. warships with ballistic missiles.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday that a new “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz would cover parts of the Gulf of Oman and beyond, adding they would announce the exact coordinates later.

“It approximately starts from the direction of Chabahar, covering part of the Sea of Oman and another part of the Arabian Sea,” IRGC Spokesman Hossein Mohebi told state television. “If a vessel enters that area without coordination, it will be subject to our sanctions.”

On Monday, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Tehran was planning to announce a maritime “exclusion zone” outside the strait where it intends to stop vessels attempting to transit the waterway without Iranian permission. 

CBS/AFP

The Houthis accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of carrying out an airstrike on a Yemeni prison, killing inmates as well as women and children who were visiting.

In a statement on X, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the alleged strike on the prison in Al-Hazm, the capital of Yemen’s Al-Jawf province, took place on Monday and killed “a large number of prison inmates, along with a number of visitors including children and women.”

“The attempts by the Saudi enemy to evade responsibility for its crimes and aggression against our country will not exempt it from the consequences and repercussions of this aggression and criminality, no matter how much it tries to cover it up,” he added.

The Saudis have not responded to the Houthi claims.

The Houthis on Wednesday also accused Saudi Arabia of launching more than 30 strikes on several regions of Yemen, a day after Saudi authorities reported Houthi attacks had injured 73 people early on Tuesday, and temporarily shut several oil facilities.

Fighting in Yemen reignited last week, when the Houthis launched a major campaign to seize territory near the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Wednesday strongly condemned U.S. strikes on its oil tankers, describing the attacks the previous day as a threat to regional security.

“The aggressive actions by the United States against Iranian commercial vessels not only increase the dangers of tensions in the region but are also considered an overt threat to regional and international peace and security,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Iranian forces had targeted U.S. military facilities in the region in “self-defense”.

U.S. Central Command said it disabled five Iranian tankers on Tuesday with strikes launched in response to unsuccessful Iranian missile attacks targeting a U.S. warship in recent days.

Several vessels in the Persian Gulf region were on fire Wednesday, a U.K. Navy agency reported, after Iran said it had attacked more than a dozen ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz without its permission.

The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center (UKMTO) said “several merchant vessels in the Northern Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman” were hit by “disabling fire as part of ongoing military activity in the region.”

The center did not name the ships in question, but the U.S. said Tuesday night it had destroyed 5 Iranian oil tankers in the gulf.

It also said a vessel 24 nautical miles northwest of Port Rashid, in the UAE, was listing, potentially due to an attack.

“The Master of a tanker has reported sighting a vessel listing while at anchor, possibly indicating water ingress following an attack from an unknown projectile,” it said.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had attacked two U.S. warships, eight oil tankers and 10 “non-compliant vessels” trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. 

The U.S. military’s Central Command quickly denied that any American ships had been struck.

The U.S. military’s Central Command denied on Wednesday Iran’s claim to have inflicted “heavy damage” on U.S. warships.

“No U.S. Navy warship has been struck; all IRGC attempted attacks failed,” CENTCOM said in a post on social media. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed earlier that its naval forces had targeted two U.S. warships, along with eight other vessels, and “inflicted heavy damage on them.”

CENTCOM dismissed the claim as “completely FALSE” and said U.S. forces had destroyed 10 Iranian tankers “just in the last week.”

An analysis by Goldman Sachs has forecast that heightened attacks in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea could push global oil prices above $120 a barrel, which would add to the surging fuel costs Americans have faced during the Iran war.

The investment bank’s forecast implies a roughly 20% increase in the cost of Brent crude, the international benchmark, which is trading at nearly $100 a barrel. Oil prices have spiked in recent weeks as the Middle East conflict drags on, with U.S. military forces striking three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday and the Houthi rebels attacking Saudi oil facilities.

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Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that it had targeted two U.S. warships and eight other vessels in retaliation for U.S. strikes on five Iranian oil tankers the previous day.

The IRGC said its naval forces had targeted the vessels in the Persian Gulf region, claiming to have “inflicted heavy damage on them.” 

There was no immediate response from the U.S. military, which said Tuesday that it had warned the crews of the five Iranian tankers to abandon ship “before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable.”

The new attacks claimed by the IRGC are the latest in a series of flare-ups in fighting between the U.S. and Iran since a ceasefire agreed to by both sides in June fell apart over disagreements regarding control over ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. 

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, hit $100 per barrel Wednesday morning, the highest it’s been since late July.

The increase is a continuation of an upward trend seen since August and follows a flare-up in fighting between the U.S. and Iran.

The U.S. announced late Tuesday it had struck 5 Iranian oil tankers in response to an attempted attack on its warships in the region. Iran retaliated by targeting a military base in Jordan that hosts U.S. forces. The Jordanian military said it intercepted 18 Iranian missiles and reported no casualties.

Dozens of South Koreans urged their government on Wednesday not to deploy troops to the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The protesters across from the U.S. embassy compound in Seoul waved signs saying “Do not join a war of aggression” as the country’s leaders weigh a “contribution” to the waterway’s security.

“We cannot send our young people into a sea of death!” chanted the protesters on the steps outside Seoul’s Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.

The protest came a day after South Korean defence authorities said they had sent a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Hormuz, while stressing that no decision had been made on any deployment.  

South Korea said Friday it was considering “contributions” to U.S. security efforts along the strait  provided that its own military readiness was not compromised.

Iran has warned that any South Korean deployment would be “regarded as direct support for the party responsible for that aggression and will have serious consequences.”

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis reported more than 30 Saudi strikes on several regions on Wednesday, a day after the rebels launched major attacks on their neighbor, injuring dozens of people.

There has been no official comment from Saudi Arabia about the Houthi report.

Saudi authorities previously said that Houthi attacks caused temporary shutdowns at oil sites and injured 73 people early Tuesday. The rebels reported Saudi airstrikes following the attacks.

Deadly fighting reignited in Yemen last week, when the Houthis launched a major campaign to seize territory near the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The strait has become an increasingly important route for Saudi oil since Iran  effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, choking Gulf exports.

CBS/AFP

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, was trading at over $99 early Wednesday, in a continuation of the upward trend seen since August.

Meanwhile, the benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $94.17 a barrel.

Before the war began in February, a fifth of the world’s oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz but since then, traffic has plummeted, with only small periods of temporary and limited recovery.

Iran has launched missiles toward U.S. targets in Jordan, Iranian state-run media said, following the latest American strikes.

It’s the latest tit-for-tat retaliation after the U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers following two attacks on a U.S. warship by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard over the past two days.

U.S. Central Command, when asked about the strikes on the Jordanian air base, said it had no information to offer.

Jordan’s military said its air defense systems intercepted 18 ballistic missiles launched toward its territory and two others fell in places where people do not live. It says it had no reports of casualties.

Jordan is a staunch U.S. ally that hosts American forces, making the kingdom’s military bases a target of repeated Iranian strikes.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy also warned crews of oil tankers near ports in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately leave their vessels, saying the ships could be targeted in retaliation for the U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers.

The U.S. military’s Central Command confirmed Tuesday it “destroyed” five oil tankers associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In a statement accompanied by video footage of the operation, CENTCOM said the strikes were in response to a set of unsuccessful Iranian missile attacks against a U.S. warship in recent days.

Four of the tankers were struck in the Gulf of Oman, according to CENTCOM, and a fifth was hit near Kharg Island, an island in the Persian Gulf that serves as Iran’s primary terminal for crude oil exports. It alleged the ships were part of Iran’s shadow fleet, a network of tankers used by Iran to export oil and generate revenue for the regime.

“American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable,” CENTCOM said.

CBS News had reported on a U.S. attack against Iranian tankers earlier Tuesday.

CENTCOM also struck three Iranian oil tankers last weekend in retaliation for an earlier attempted Iranian attack against U.S. Navy ships.