Gulf, Washington declares five tankers destroyed and Tehran claims twenty targets

This morning’s edition reported the missile attack on Jordan stating that it relied on a single chain of sources: the German public broadcaster’s newscast, which cited the Jordanian state news agency. Over the course of the day that account found confirmation from different origins, and along with the confirmation came the context that had been missing: the Iranian retaliation responds to a US naval operation about which nothing was known this morning.

Five tankers according to the US Command

The United States Central Command states it destroyed five Iranian tankers: four in the Gulf of Oman, used according to the Command by the Revolutionary Guards, and a fifth near Kharg Island (Just Security, WORLD Radio). Al Jazeera identifies the fifth unit as the M/T Derya (Al Jazeera).

The reason given by the Command is that Iran launched ballistic missiles against a US Navy warship twice in one week (Just Security). This is the version put forward by one of the two armed parties: the available extracts contain no images, coordinates, or third-party assessments regarding the five units struck.

The Jordanian and Iranian counts

The Revolutionary Guards announced the launch of ballistic missiles against a base used by US military personnel near Al Azraq, in Jordan. Amman states that its air defenses intercepted 18 of the 20 missiles, that two fell in uninhabited areas, and that there were no casualties (Just Security, Al Jazeera). These are the same figures we published this morning from a single source: today they have a second origin, and remain figures declared by the country that was struck.

On Hormuz, the picture takes on a different character. The Revolutionary Guards’ public relations office, in a statement attributed by the Iranian agency IRNA, states that on September 9 it struck two US naval units, eight tankers, and ten ships that were preparing to cross the area Tehran has declared prohibited and unsafe in the strait (Vista, citing IRNA). None of the other sources in the dossier confirm this list: twenty claimed naval targets constitute a partisan statement, not an established fact, and they appear as such on this page.

The price of oil rises above one hundred dollars

The market registered the day’s events before any verification took place. Al Jazeera reports that in early trading on September 9 the price of oil rose above 100 dollars per barrel (Al Jazeera). The previous day Brent was trading just under 98 dollars after a rise of more than 1 percent, with WTI at 92.20 dollars, its highest level since late July according to Reuters (Investing.com Italia).

What we do not know

We do not know whether the five tankers indicated by the US Command and the ships claimed by Tehran had crews on board, nor what damage they sustained: none of the available sources provides a human toll from the operations at sea. No US version of the attack on the base in Jordan differing from the Jordanian one appears in the extracts. We do not know whether the area Tehran has declared prohibited in the strait coincides with the routes actually closed to commercial shipping.

The two parties published counts today that do not align on any single figure: five units destroyed versus twenty units struck. This is the first time, in the material available to us today, that both sides claim an offensive action on the same day.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Just Security (based on CENTCOM and Jordanian government statements, cited by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal), WORLD Radio, Investing.com (Reuters dispatch). The statement by the Revolutionary Guards is attributed by IRNA (Iranian state news agency) and cited by Vista.