Iran is claiming a “direct hit” on the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, boasting that a sea‑skimming cruise missile slammed into the supercarrier’s defensive ring in one of the most dramatic strikes of the war so far, defence sources say.

According to Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders, a long‑range, radar‑evading cruise missile was launched from a concealed coastal battery overlooking the Gulf of Oman, flying just metres above the water before popping up in its terminal phase to home in on the Lincoln strike group. Grainy footage aired on Iranian TV shows a low streak over the sea, then a distant fireball near a large silhouette.

On the US side, early reports confirm that an escort destroyer, not the carrier itself, absorbed the brunt of the blast. The missile detonated close aboard, ripping open topside structures, starting fires and injuring several sailors. Damage‑control teams battled the blaze for nearly an hour as helicopters winched the most seriously hurt to a nearby hospital ship.

Pentagon officials insist the Abraham Lincoln suffered only “minor shock damage” and remains “fully mission‑capable,” accusing Tehran of spinning a near‑miss into a propaganda victory. Yet open‑source tracking shows the carrier group has since shifted hundreds of kilometres deeper into the Arabian Sea, feeding debate over whether Washington is quietly widening the safety buffer.

For Iran’s hardliners, the message is simple: America’s premier warship can be touched. For US planners, the response is equally blunt: any cruise missile that gets this close will trigger punishing strikes on Iran’s launch sites and command hubs—raising the risk that the next “direct hit” could ignite a far bigger war at sea.