Iran Claims Strikes on Two US Destroyers and Eight Tankers as Brent Breaches $100 for First Time Since July

Iran's IRGC Navy said early Sep 9 that it had targeted two US Navy destroyers, identified as DDG-119 and DDG-53, plus eight oil tankers 'in the region,' claiming 'significant damage'; the IRGC Aerospace Force separately claimed it had targeted 10 'violating ships' attempting to pass through the restricted zone Mohsen Rezaei announced on Sep 7 -- the first claimed enforcement action of that threatened exclusion zone. CENTCOM flatly denied any US warship was hit, saying 'no U.S. Navy warship has been struck; all IRGC attempted attacks failed,' and none of Iran's claims were independently confirmed. Iran separately said it fired on Jordan's Al-Azraq base and 'several U.S. aggressive vessels' in self-defense, continuing the overnight barrage that began Sep 8. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned, 'Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers,' while Iran's Foreign Ministry called the US actions a continuation of 'aggression' and 'economic war.' Brent crude, which settled at $97.89 on Sep 8, traded through $100.29 in early Sep 9 dealing -- its first three-figure print in about six weeks and the culmination of a roughly $25/bbl climb since early July -- while Kpler's tracking continued to show only single-digit-to-low-teens vessel crossings per day through the strait, against a pre-war baseline of 130-140/day.