Iran says it is 'counting the moments' to sink U.S. warships; Aramco site hit

Saudi officials said Wednesday that an administrative building belonging to oil giant Saudi Aramco was targeted overnight in the eastern city of Dhahran. According to a statement from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Energy, the strike started a fire but caused no injuries. The attack comes as Tehran-backed Houthi militants intensify a campaign against the kingdom.

The Houthis, a Yemen-based militia backed by Iran, have carried out a string of strikes on Saudi targets over the past week. Attacks on airports in Riyadh resulted in multiple deaths, flight cancellations and damage to property, and King Khalid International Airport remains closed until Saturday. Yemen's civil war has also returned to full-scale fighting between the Houthis and the country's internationally recognized government, set against a broader regional escalation tied to the U.S.–Iran conflict.

Iranian rhetoric sharpened on Wednesday, with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Ali Ozmaei saying Tehran is 'counting the moments' until it can sink American warships, according to Iranian state-affiliated media. 'If the Americans think the Strait of Hormuz is open, let them come closer. We are impatient to sink American warships,' Ozmaei said in a televised interview, adding that Iran is waiting for U.S. warships to approach the entrance to the strait. CNBC said it reached out to the White House for comment.

U.S. Central Command pushed back on Iranian claims of control over the strait in a post on X. 'IRGC's navy commander has no navy. American forces and regional partners clearly control the Strait of Hormuz,' Centcom said, adding that U.S. forces had helped Gulf partners ship more than 19 million barrels of crude oil through the waterway the previous day.

Shipping in the region remained unsettled. Reports emerged Wednesday that a cargo ship caught fire and sank in the Strait of Hormuz after striking a naval mine while trying to transit the waterway, though CNBC said it could not independently verify those accounts. Later in the day, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a Royal Navy-sponsored maritime security organization, said a 'verified source' had reported a container ship being hit by an 'unknown projectile.'

The escalation follows reporting by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Iran has been reinforcing defenses around sensitive sites such as nuclear facilities and warning regional officials that any new U.S. strikes would be met with retaliation across the Middle East, as it prepares its public for renewed war in the coming weeks. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that American forces would not attack Iran before the midterm election on Nov. 3.