A correspondent for Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported on Saturday hearing several explosions of unknown origin near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, a key oil terminal. The correspondent heard blasts but could not see smoke, according to the agency's account.
The state-affiliated Nournews reported unconfirmed claims from local sources that a US missile had struck an Iranian oil tanker near the island. Iran's Tasnim news agency, also semi-official, quoted local sources saying the tanker's crew was being evacuated with no casualties reported.
Kharg Island handled 90 percent of Iran's crude oil exports before a conflict disrupted flows. A US blockade of Iranian oil exports has been in place since mid-April, according to reports.
Neither Iranian nor US authorities made official announcements about the reported strikes. The news site Asr Iran alleged that US forces had fired four projectiles at an oil tanker while it was being unloaded.
Separately, Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday killed at least three people and wounded 23, the Lebanese health ministry said. The strikes came despite an ongoing truce between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group that dominates southern Lebanon.
The ministry said strikes hit five locations in the southern regions of Tyr and Nabatieh and the eastern Beqaa region. In Rmadiyeh, a village in the Tyre area more than 10 kilometres from the Israeli border, one person was killed and 15 others wounded, including two children, three women and six rescue workers.
