US military sinks 5 Iranian oil tankers, Iran's IRGC vows retaliation

The U.S. forces said on Tuesday that they had destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers, while Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that tankers at Kuwaiti and Bahraini piers would be targeted.

The U.S. Central Command said the strikes were carried out in retaliation for IRGC attacks on a U.S. Navy warship over the past two days.

The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks with ballistic missiles and continued to patrol regional waters, the command said in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday that an Iranian oil tanker was targeted in a U.S. missile attack four miles (about 6.5 km) off Iran's southern Kharg Island that day.

It cited local sources as saying the incident caused no casualties.

Following the incidents, the IRGC Navy warned all crew members of oil tankers at piers in Kuwait and Bahrain to immediately evacuate from their vessels.

"Given the terrorist U.S. Army's malicious actions in targeting several oil tankers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we warn all crew members of the tankers at piers of Kuwait and Bahrain, which host these terrorists and are accomplices in their malicious acts, to immediately leave their vessels, whether at anchorages or ports, as they will be targeted," the navy said in a statement published on the IRGC's official news outlet Sepah News.

Separately, Ali Abdollahi, chief commander of Iran's main military command Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned that any aggression against Iranian tankers will lead to the targeting of U.S. bases in the West Asia region, according to Sepah News.

US military sinks 5 Iranian oil tankers, Iran's IRGC vows retaliation

A surge in summer holiday travel and the growing demand for high-quality services helped push China's consumer prices higher in August, with the consumer price index (CPI) rising 0.8 percent year on year, experts said Wednesday following the release of key economic data.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the CPI in August increase accelerated by 0.3 percentage points from July, with both consumer goods and service prices rising 0.8 percent.

"Since the beginning of this year, new domestic consumption scenarios in areas such as cultural tourism have become increasingly diverse. In particular, during the summer peak season in August, residents' travel demand was released intensively, driving up prices for tourism services, hotel accommodations, and related sectors. In addition, as residents' demand for high-quality service consumption continues to grow, prices for household services such as housekeeping have also risen," said Liu Nancun, an economist at the Analysis and Forecasting Division of the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission.

On a month-on-month basis, the national CPI turned from a 0.1 percent decline in the previous month to a 0.4 percent increase. This was mainly driven by rising international crude oil prices, which led to higher domestic refined oil product prices and pushed up transportation fuel costs. In addition, driven by factors such as the rapidly growing demand for computing power, prices of products including tablet computers, computers, and mobile phones also rose.

Summer travel, service demand push August CPI higher in China