(Bloomberg) — The US military said it launched strikes against three Iranian crude oil tankers, destroying one, in retaliation for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting two US Navy warships with ballistic missiles. 

One of the struck tankers, the Suezmax-sized Kylo, has sunk in the Gulf of Oman, according to the US Central Command post on X late Saturday. That followed an earlier message in which it said it had destroyed Kylo, disabled Suezmax Stark I in the Gulf of Oman and very large crude carrier Downy in the Persian Gulf near Iran’s oil export hub Kharg Island. 

Central Command said Kylo’s crew was told to abandon the vessel before the strike. Shipping data suggest Kylo wasn’t carrying crude oil when they were struck.

“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,” Admiral Brad Cooper, who runs Central Command, said in the post.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to strangle Iran’s economy even as he has struggled to bring the months-long war to a close. On Friday, he called the conflict “small potatoes.”

Polls show Americans have given Trump poor marks for his handling of the war, which has spiked energy prices and put the president’s fellow Republicans in danger of losing control of Congress in the November midterm elections.

Observable traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, remained sparse with only one commodity vessel crossing on Saturday, Kpler data show. Shipowners have avoided sending vessels through the chokepoint amid concern that Iran would attack ships, though many have crossed without turning their transponders on, at times with US military support.

Trump recently claimed that the US is helping up to 40 vessels a night transit Hormuz.

A network of at-sea transfers of crude and oil cargoes in the Gulf of Oman, where Kylo was struck, has emerged as Persian Gulf exporters seek ways to deliver shipments without buyers needing to dispatch vessels through Hormuz. The waters off Fujairah and Sohar have become congested as idling vessels await tankers that sail out, often without signals on, from the Persian Gulf.

(Updates from second paragraph with names and status of tankers.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.