U.S. disables two Iranian tankers as Hormuz standoff deepens

U.S. fighter jets disabled two Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday by striking their smokestacks, deepening a confrontation that has pushed a month-old ceasefire toward collapse, The Korea Times reported.

The intensifying standoff imperils oil flows through one of the world's most critical chokepoints — a passage through which South Korea imports more than 60 percent of its crude, a vulnerability with direct implications for Korean-American households with financial and personal ties to the peninsula.

U.S. forces also thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships earlier Friday and struck Iranian military facilities inside the strait, according to The Korea Times. Earlier in the week, a U.S. military jet destroyed the rudder of a separate Iranian tanker. The United Arab Emirates said its air defenses intercepted three ballistic missiles and three drones launched by Iran on Friday, wounding three people.

At least one sailor was killed and 10 others were injured aboard a cargo vessel struck by U.S. forces, the Korea Times reported. Iran has effectively closed the strait to uncontrolled passage by establishing the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, an entity that controls and taxes vessels transiting the waterway.

"They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Friday, according to the Korea Times. He pressed the broader international community to confront Iran's blockade: "Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway? What is the world prepared to do about it?"

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the U.S. position. "Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure," Araghchi posted on X, the Korea Times reported. The latest exchanges violate a ceasefire reached roughly one month after a war that began Feb. 28, 2026.

The violence also triggered an environmental emergency. An apparent oil slick covering roughly 95 square kilometers was detected near Kharg Island, Iran's main crude export terminal, drifting southwest at about 2 kilometers per hour, according to the Korea Times. "If the slick continues drifting southward, there could also be risks to ecologically sensitive and protected marine areas in the Gulf," said Nina Noelle, an international crisis operations expert with Greenpeace Germany.

South Korea, which last year imported more than 60 percent of its crude through the strait, received about 1 million barrels of oil at its coast on Friday, according to the Korea Times. The U.S. is awaiting Iran's answer to a proposal to end the conflict, reopen the strait and address Tehran's nuclear program — a diplomatic off-ramp that neither side has yet taken.