Five Iranian tankers hit, one sunk. US Central Command announced that its forces struck four vessels in the Gulf of Oman and another near the island of Hormuz - after Iran twice in two days attempted to hit an American destroyer with ballistic missiles.

The video CENTCOM released shows the tanker M/T Riesco burning and sinking in the Gulf of Oman. The American message is that the crews were ordered to abandon the ships before the strikes and that no US serviceman was hurt. So: the oil burns, the people are moved aside, and the war is fought through cargo vessels.

The retaliation went to Amman, not Washington

Iran did not hit back at the American ship. It fired missiles at Jordan, claiming the target was the Muwaffaq Salti air base. The Jordanian army said its air defences intercepted 20 ballistic projectiles and destroyed 18, with two landing in an uninhabited area without casualties.

This is worth pausing on. Jordan is not a party to this fight - somebody else's base sits on its territory, and that alone is enough for the country to take twenty missiles in one morning. The Balkans know this logic by heart: when the big players quarrel, the first to pay the price is the neighbour with no vote.

Hormuz is the currency again

One of the tankers hit was four miles from Kharg Island, the export throat of Iranian oil. Another was struck near Jask on the Gulf of Oman. Both crews were rescued. From the Iranian side came a threat of attacks on tankers at the ports of Bahrain and Kuwait, with a message to all crews to evacuate immediately.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio put it most bluntly: every time Iran attacks an American warship, it will lose tankers. That is a bill written in advance, and both sides know what every move costs.

In parallel, the Trump administration imposed broad sanctions on Iranian aviation - 27 Iranian airlines and nine service companies linked to the already-sanctioned Mahan Air, accused of supplying the Revolutionary Guard. The strikes are visible on video; the sanctions work slowly and without cameras, but they squeeze the artery of those same structures.

The Gulf of Oman and Hormuz are the door through which an enormous share of the world's oil passes. When that door starts burning, the price does not stay where the missile fell. Whether this reaches us depends on how long this exchange of tankers for destroyers goes on.