Iran: Missiles struck one of our oil tankers

Missiles struck an Iranian oil tanker Friday off the coast of Saudi Arabia, Iran’s state news agency reported, causing damage to the ship’s hull and spilling oil into the Red Sea. The tanker was hit by two explosions along a main oil transport route, near the Saudi port city of Jiddah.

The blasts were under investigation by technical experts aboard the vessel, the company said.

Oil prices had already been under pressure, and news of the explosion sent Brent crude, the international benchmark, up about 2% in futures markets.

The incident comes amid several attacks on oil tankers and facilities in the Persian Gulf region in recent months, as the United States tightened sanctions on Iran.

1,800 U.S. troops being deployed

The Pentagon will deploy an additional 1,800 U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia, senior defense officials announced Friday, a modest increase in the U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East meant to deter aggressive Iranian actions.

The deployments include two fighter squadrons, an air expeditionary wing headquarters unit, two Patriot missile batteries and one air-defense unit operating a system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. The new deployments, taken together with others authorized within the last month, boost the number of U.S. troops in the Middle East by about 3,000.

Deaths climb amid incursion

Turkish forces pushed deeper into northeastern Syria on Friday, the third day of Ankara’s offensive against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters, as casualties mounted, international criticism of the campaign intensified and thousands of civilians fled the violence.

Turkish authorities say eight civilians have been killed in a Turkish border town following a mortar attack from Kurdish-held Syria, bringing the civilian death toll in Turkey since the beginning of its cross-border offensive to 17.

Turkey said it captured more Kurdish-held villages in the border region, while a camp for displaced residents about 7 miles from the frontier was evacuated after artillery shells landed nearby amid intense clashes.

White House warns Turkey

The White House is putting Turkey on notice that it could face new “powerful sanctions” and that the U.S. will “shut down the Turkish economy” if Ankara goes too far in its incursion against the Kurds in northern Syria.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House on Friday the U.S. hopes it will not have to use its new, expanded sanctions authority President Donald Trump has authorized.

SHANA VIA AP This photo released by the official news agency of the Iranian Oil Ministry shows Iranian oil tanker Sabiti traveling through the Red Sea on Friday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. hopes it will not have to use sanctions on Turkey.