US hits three Iranian oil tankers after saying its warships were targeted

BREAKING: US strikes three Iranian 'shadow network' oil tankers after saying its warships were targeted with ballistic missiles, US military says.

Iran fired ballistic missiles at American warships. That is Washington's account of how tonight started.

The US military says its ships in the region came under attack, and the response was fast. American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers, vessels the Pentagon describes as part of Tehran's shadow network, the fleet Iran uses to move sanctioned crude around the world.

Those tankers are not just cargo ships in this telling. They're a revenue line for Tehran, and hitting them is hitting the money. It also moves this confrontation squarely into the shipping lanes that carry a fifth of the world's oil.

Missiles at warships, strikes on tankers, all in one night. The gap between an incident and a war in the Gulf just got very thin, and oil traders will be awake early on Monday.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.