New Delhi: Iran’s Kharg Island is facing renewed threat after a US military strike was reported near the country’s main oil-export hub, adding pressure to an already disrupted energy sector. The reported attack involved a small Iranian oil tanker and came days after the US president, Donald Trump, publicly depicted the strategic island being “blown to smithereens” in an AI-generated video.
The tanker was targeted about six nautical miles from Kharg Island on Saturday morning, according to the Tasnim news agency. The vessel was in the anchorage area off the island when four projectiles fired by US forces reportedly struck it.
Citing local sources, Tasnim said there were no casualties and that the tanker’s crew was evacuating the vessel. Authorities were assessing the extent of the damage and investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, with further details expected.
The reported attack has particular significance because of Kharg Island’s role in Iran’s oil trade. Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and had been exporting around 90 per cent of its crude through Kharg before the war. Iran’s oil shipments have already faced disruption since the US blockade of Iranian oil exports began in mid-April. The pressure on the energy sector has also coincided with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Kharg Island has been a potential target in Trump’s warnings over Iran for months. On August 31, Trump shared an AI-generated video showing what appeared to be a major blast at the island, accompanied by the message, “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!”
Trump’s latest remarks on the conflict have taken a different tone. Speaking to reporters on Friday, he backed the views of the US vice-president, JD Vance, that months of intermittent attacks in the Middle East should not be described as a “war”. Trump instead referred to the confrontation as a “military conflict” and called it “small potatoes” for the US, noting that American strikes had become intermittent.
Trump has continued to justify the strikes by pointing to the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. According to an RNA Media report, he said the US had achieved that objective after five months of conflict and warned that Iran would not have a nuclear weapon.
Alongside those assurances, Trump has kept open the possibility of further military action. He said the US could “hit” Iran’s heavily fortified underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain, adding that the strike could come very soon.
“We may hit Pickaxe very soon,” Trump said, highlighting US surveillance capabilities and claiming that Washington knew who was moving around Pickaxe and elsewhere in Iran.