US strikes three Iranian tankers after naval confrontation, escalating regional tensions

In the Persian Gulf, the United States struck three Iranian oil tankers after its warships came under missile fire, marking a sharp resumption of hostilities in a conflict that had briefly quieted. The strikes — disabling two vessels and destroying a third — were framed by the Pentagon as acts of self-defense against a covert financial network sustaining Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Yet the moment arrives shadowed by a February school strike that killed 156 children and a more recent wedding attack, reminding the world that the machinery of escalation rarely distinguishes between the intended