Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
The attacks in and around the vital waterway sent the price of oil surging, with the international Brent crude benchmark breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July.
The politically sensitive average retail price of diesel fuel in the United States hit a fresh all-time high above $5.94 a gallon.