US President Donald Trump warned that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if it attacks American vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after US Navy destroyers entered the waterway and US Central Command said its forces had sunk six Iranian fast boats.

Speaking to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump said the warning related to operations under Project Freedom, the US escort plan for stranded shipping. “We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before,” Trump said, adding that Iran had become “much more malleable” in negotiations but that any escalation against US assets would draw a “severe response.” Trump also accused Iran of attacking a South Korean cargo ship in the strait and suggested Seoul should join the US-led mission.

CENTCOM commander Admiral Bradley Cooper told reporters the US military “blew up” six small Iranian boats on Monday after Iran launched “multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats” at US Navy ships and protected commercial vessels. The boats were attacked by US Apache and SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. Trump separately put the figure at seven — a discrepancy with his own military’s count. Cooper stressed there were no formal “escorts” but a “much broader defensive package” of ships, helicopters, aircraft and electronic warfare. Iran said its forces fired warning shots at a US warship and called Iranian state media’s earlier claim that missiles had hit a US ship “entirely false”; Washington denied any vessel was struck.

Brent crude rose more than 5% to pass $115 a barrel after reports of fresh Iranian drone and missile strikes on the United Arab Emirates, including a fire at the key Fujairah oil port and an explosion on a South Korean cargo ship. In Oman, two people were injured when a residential building was hit in Bukha along the Hormuz coast, state media said.

The renewed escalation comes a month after a fragile US-Iran ceasefire and pushes Sri Lanka’s fuel-import bill further above the $100-a-barrel level that has anchored four price hikes in five weeks. An estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 ships have been stranded since the war began in February.

Sources: BBC, Newswire, Ada Derana.