An Iranian tanker ‌was hit by U.S. forces on Saturday near Iran’s key oil export hub, Kharg Island, in the Gulf, the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.

According to a Tasnim correspondent from ​Kharg, the tanker was hit by four U.S. missiles in the ​area of Kharg Island’s anchorage, Reuters reported.

Tasnim quoted local sources as ⁠saying there were no casualties and the tanker’s crew was being evacuated.

There ​was no immediate official announcement by Iranian authorities and U.S. Central Command did not ​immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on August 31 in a one-line social media post accompanied by an AI-generated video that Kharg Island was ​being “blown to smithereens”. Iranian authorities have vowed a strong response if Kharg ​is attacked.

Iran is the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and ‌exported ⁠90% of its crude via Kharg Island before the war, but flows have been disrupted since a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil exports began in mid-April.

Trump said on June 11 that he wanted to take over Kharg Island, ​but then said ​a threatened U.S. ⁠military operation there was off the table for now, days before Tehran and Washington signed an interim agreement aimed at ending ​the war on June 17.

A U.S. attack on ​Kharg would ⁠heap further pressure on Iran’s oil industry and its wider economy, which is already reeling from the U.S. naval blockade.

The U.S. imposed its blockade on ⁠Iranian ports ​after Iran effectively shut the Strait of ​Hormuz, a key waterway that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply before the war.

Syria has begun destroying remnants of a clandestine chemical weapons programme dating from the rule of former President Bashar al-Assad, which were recovered in May, a Syrian envoy and a United Nations representative said on Thursday.

The destruction marks the first such operation in Syria in a decade. Reuters reported in May that Syria’s new leadership had discovered remnants of Assad’s chemical weapons programme, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used in deadly gas attacks during the country’s civil war.

Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the Security Council that, for the first time since 2014, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in Syria.

Following the May discovery, Syrian authorities identified an additional chemical weapons production facility, a previously unknown chemical used in the production of nerve agents and empty chemical munitions, Nakamitsu said.

Syria also declared two chemical weapons storage facilities where the newly discovered materials had been stored, she added.

Last month, the OPCW deployed a team to Syria to verify the destruction of category-three chemical weapons, which include unfilled munitions and other equipment used to release chemical agents. The team verified the “irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs”, Nakamitsu said.

Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Olabi, told the council that the country’s efforts were aimed at “protecting the world and the region”.

However, Olabi strongly criticised Israel, saying repeated Israeli attacks had disrupted some search-and-destruction operations and exposed Syrian teams involved in the work to danger.

“We cannot safeguard the security of the region if our security is exposed to attacks at the hands of Israel,” Olabi said, accusing Israel of undermining regional security and violating international conventions and treaties.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Olabi also said Syria was preparing to hold the first court hearing for people suspected of involvement in the chemical weapons programme.

Syrian authorities earlier this year detained 18 suspects over alleged involvement in Assad’s chemical weapons programme, including senior military, political and technical officials.

The sudden recent escalation of the Iran war has cast renewed attention on its civilian toll ​after Iran reported 18 dead in the last U.S. assault, including four killed and dozens wounded at a wedding, Reuters reported.

Iran’s health minister said 18 people were killed ‌and 108 wounded in Tuesday night’s U.S. strikes across Iran. The Iranian Red Crescent said four people were killed and 67 wounded at a wedding ceremony near the coast of the Strait of Hormuz.

The return of combat operations has alarmed countries throughout the region, as Iran launched missile and drone attacks against what it said were U.S. assets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq. Kuwait’s army reported further missile and drone attacks early Thursday, ​saying they were intercepted by air defense systems.

The guns had largely gone silent since the previous exchange in July, although peace talks failed to advance in the interim. ​U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to unleash yet more military force, even though the war is unpopular at home and has driven up ⁠the cost of gasoline.

Top aides to Trump are pushing to keep the war from escalating before November’s midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, and White House officials will consider ramping up ​military action after the vote on November 3, four people familiar with the discussions said.

Iran, for its part, has remained defiant, despite suffering heavy military and economic losses.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio ​Guterres was “deeply alarmed by reports of civilian casualties, including a strike that reportedly hit a wedding ceremony in Iran,” and called for an immediate cessation of military action, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks against civilians. He recalls that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution,” Dujarric said.

The deaths would be in addition to the 3,636 people documented as ​killed in Iran as of April 7, including 1,701 civilians, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an independent Iranian rights group, read the report.

The U.S. has reported 18 military personnel killed ​and more than 750 wounded.

“We are aware of reports, which originated from Iranian state media. The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC,” U.S. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. military’s ‌Central Command, ⁠said in an email.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society released video showing debris strewn on the ground next to a building with a large hole in the roof, accompanied by still images showing people, some in Red Crescent vests, at a damaged building and a utility tower lying on the ground.

Reuters was able to verify the location using satellite imagery, which showed the fallen tower was 136 metres (149 yards) from the damaged building.

The wedding incident recalled the blast at a school in Minab that killed 160 peopleat a girls’ school on the first day of the war.

The Pentagon ​has yet to issue an official finding on ​the Minab strike, which would be ⁠the U.S. military’s largest civilian casualty incident in decades. It may have been the result of U.S. use of outdated targeting data, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Democratic members of the U.S. Congress have called on the administration to release findings of its investigation of the incident, ​but the report has not been sent to lawmakers.

U.S. defenders of the Iran war also point to civilian deaths that resulted from ​Iranian attempts to put ⁠down street protests that embroiled the country in December and January, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. HRANA has put that death toll at more than 7,000, while Iranian exile groups claim the number is much higher.

Trump has cited an incentive for Iranians to overthrow their government as one reason for the war, in addition to seeking to halt Iran’s nuclear program and ⁠ending its support ​for militant groups abroad such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Iran has also responded to the U.S. attacks ​by threatening any oil tankers that transit the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian authorization, severely curtailing traffic in a waterway that before the war carried 20% of the world’s oil supply.