The six-month-old Middle East war escalated significantly as Iranian-backed Houthi forces launched strikes against four southern Saudi cities, injuring 73 people and igniting fires at key oil installations. The major expansion of hostilites drew a key U.S. ally deeper into the regional conflict and immediately reverberated across global energy markets. In response to repeated Iranian ballistic missile attacks targeting naval vessels over the preceding days, U.S. Central Command confirmed the destruction of five Iranian crude oil carriers, releasing video footage of the strikes and prompting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to warn that continued attempts to hit American ships would result in further loss of Iranian tankers.

Following the maritime strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a retaliatory ballistic missile barrage aimed at a U.S. military base near Al Azraq, Jordan. While Iranian state media claimed the strike inflicted severe damage, Jordanian officials reported that air defenses successfully intercepted 18 of the 20 incoming missiles, with no casualties recorded. The multi-front escalation—which also included Iranian threats against oil tankers in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as an unexplained attack on an LNG carrier off the UAE coast—ended a brief period of relative calm, driving benchmark Brent crude futures up toward their highest levels since late July.

 

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