September 9 (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped for the fourth straight session, gaining more than $1 in early trade on Wednesday after Iran launched fresh attacks on U.S. military assets in the Gulf as the war between Washington and Tehran continued to spill out across the region.
Brent crude futures rose $1.57, or 1.6%, to $99.49 a barrel by 0001 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $94.63 a barrel, up $1.60, or 1.72%.
Brent crude prices have jumped by a quarter since early August as hopes for a permanent resolution to the six-month-old war faded and as fighting flared again.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked two U.S. destroyers and what they described as a U.S. base in Jordan’s Al Azraq with ballistic missiles in retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian oil tankers.
Jordan’s air-defence systems destroyed 18 of the 20 ballistic missiles originating from Iranian territory, while two missiles fell in unpopulated areas and there were no casualties, the state news agency reported the military as saying.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran that the U.S. would continue to strike Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for attempted attacks on U.S. warships.
“Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Colombia.
U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday that its forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers on September 8 after attempted missile attacks on a U.S. Navy warship over the past two days.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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