A US official on Tuesday said American forces had struck several Iranian tankers tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The official told The National that the strikes came in response to new attempted missile attacks on a US Navy warship.
After the strikes, Iranian news agency Mehr quoted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as warning tanker crews in Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports to abandon ship "because they will be targeted".
The incident is the latest in a war that had seemed to be easing, before the US and Iran began trading strikes again in late August.
Although the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington broke down in July, months after it was struck in April, the war entered a lull, with both sides exercising restraint.
Despite the earlier failure of diplomacy, negotiations began to ensure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed at the start of the war.
But in August, the US carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets, accusing it of trying to reseed the strait with mines and attacking shipping.
Iran retaliated with ballistic missile strikes on US military bases, including one in Jordan.
Tehran has threatened to attack US energy interests in the Gulf should strikes on Iranian territory continue.
Oil prices, edging higher over the new series of strikes starting last month, closed in on $100 a barrel, with Brent crude at more than $99.
