US hits 5 Iran oil tankers, sanctions all Iranian airlines

The five tankers struck by US Central Command on Tuesday had exported a combined 45 million barrels of Iranian crude oil and refined products since May 2019, TankerTrackers said in a post on X. The monitoring group identified the vessels as Charminar, Kaviz, Horizon 1, Riesco and the cargo-empty National Iranian Tanker Company VLCC supertanker Derya. TankerTrackers added that CENTCOM has struck six NITC tankers and 10 other Iran-linked tankers during the conflict. It reported that the vessels had transported a combined 215 million barrels over the years, representing about 80,000 barrels per day in exports, or nearly 6% of the total.

CENTCOM forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 8, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days. The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and… pic.twitter.com/Gi8a2tloN1

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 8, 2026

The Iranian navy has claimed to have captured one of the US military's "most modern, smart" unmanned submarines at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement published by Sepah News, the official news outlet of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the navy said it captured the unmanned underwater vehicle -- identified as a Dive-LD -- in a complex intelligence operation. The submersible vehicle is equipped with the world's most modern subsurface vehicle technology, it said, and released a video of the captured vehicle.  In a separate statement, the IRGC also claimed that its air defence systems had shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz, Sepah News reported.

Footage released by Iranian media shows what the IRGC claims is an American Dive-LD unmanned submarine captured today. Iran says the vessel is now in its possession. pic.twitter.com/POWlEHHnd5

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 8, 2026

Following the IRGC's announcement, the US military also released a statement saying one of its underwater drones "malfunctioned" over a day earlier during a survey of regional waters, without mentioning whether the device was the one seized by Iran. "It was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations. The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment," a Pentagon spokesperson said.
The US Treasury on Tuesday imposed fresh Iran-related sanctions on one individual and 35 entities, including all 27 remaining Iranian airlines, as Washington expanded pressure on Tehran’s aviation sector and networks supporting sanctioned carrier Mahan Air. The Office of Foreign Assets Control added airlines including Iran Aseman Airlines, Iran Airtour, Kish Air, Qeshm Air, Taban Airlines, Sepehran Airlines, Varesh Airlines, Zagros Airlines, Karun Airlines, Chabahar Airlines and Fly Persia to its Specially Designated Nationals list. Newer carriers including Air Shiraz, Ava Airlines, Fly Kish, Mehr Airways, Raimon Airways and Soroush Air were also listed.