The Tanker War was the maritime component of the Iran-Iraq War (1980β88) involving strikes on oil tankers and merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf from May 1984 until the end of the war. It began after the land war between Iran and Iraq became a stalemate, Iraq began stepping up attacks on Iranβs Kharg Island, and Iran started responding systematically to those attacks. The disruption in commercial shipping prompted U.S. intervention starting in 1987 and led to direct confrontation between U.S. and Iranian forces.
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