DUBAI. Iran says its Revolutionary Guards struck the navigation and communications systems on Didamar Island, a small Omani island that helps guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Three sources confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that the island's systems were attacked. Oman disputes that the navigation aids were hit, and how much damage was done remains unclear.
Didamar, also called Little Quoin Island, is an uninhabited rocky island about 10 nautical miles north of the tip of Oman's Musandam Peninsula. If the strike is confirmed in full, it would be the first time Iran's campaign against shipping has landed on the soil of Oman, the region's one neutral state, which keeps talking to both sides.
What the island does
Didamar has guided ships for more than a century. Its lighthouse, built by the British in 1914, was the first in Oman. The island also carries shore radar on a tower about 25 meters tall and radio equipment. In peacetime it hosts the Hormuz Control Centre, staffed by the Royal Navy of Oman, which marshals traffic through the strait, and its aids are maintained by Oman's Arabian Maritime and Navigation Aids Services.
The strait works like a two lane highway at sea. Under an international traffic separation scheme, ships entering the Gulf use one lane and ships leaving use another, and those lanes run through Omani territorial waters along the southern side. Since Iran declared the strait closed and began attacking ships, commercial vessels have been advised to use this southern route, close to the Omani coast, outside Tehran's direct military control, under U.S. military escort. Iran calls any transit on that route unauthorized.
The claim and the evidence
Iranian state media said on Tuesday, November 10, that the Revolutionary Guards had carried out strikes destroying "enemy navigation systems" on Didamar. State television said the personnel and equipment on the island were "helping the flow of oil smuggling by the enemy." A Guards navy official quoted by the Fars News Agency said the navigational aid systems in the south of the strait had been destroyed, that oil smuggling through the strait had been completely halted, and that no vessel Iran considers unauthorized had passed overnight.
The evidence outside Iran is mixed. Reuters confirmed smoke rising from the island in video footage, though not what was burning, and European Copernicus Sentinel 2 imagery dated November 8 showed apparent scorch marks near the radar and radio equipment. The Institute for the Study of War put the attack on November 8, two days before Iran claimed it, and said the Guards had overstated its effect, because ships kept using the southern route. Shipping and maritime security sources told Reuters any impact on traffic would likely be limited, because other navigation systems operate elsewhere in the strait. Satellite imagery from the morning of November 10 showed no obvious damage to the lighthouse or the masts, The Maritime Executive reported, though mast damage could be hard to see at that resolution.
The responses, and the silence
Oman has answered in fragments, not in a formal statement. A senior Omani official told The Maritime Executive that the navigational aids on Didamar had not been struck. The Wall Street Journal reported that an Omani coast guard official confirmed an explosion struck the island but gave no details. Oman's Maritime Security Centre declined to comment. Reuters said Oman's media ministry and U.S. Central Command did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. As of Thursday, neither government had issued a public statement about Didamar, and no other Gulf state had commented publicly.
Why Oman matters
Oman is the strait's quiet go between. Muscat has hosted contacts between Washington and Tehran for years and has neither joined the American blockade nor helped Iran enforce its closure. Its foreign minister discussed joint mechanisms for the strait with Iran's foreign minister as recently as November 5. A strike on Omani territory, even on an uninhabited rock, tests that neutrality in a way attacks on tankers do not. In normal times about a fifth of the world's oil passes through Hormuz, 20.9 million barrels a day in the first half of 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The wider picture, briefly
The Didamar claim came in the same week as Iran's unveiling of an underground missile base and its disputed claim that tankers struck mines in the strait, covered in a separate Zark News report on Tuesday. Gulf oil exports had recovered to more than 80 percent of prewar levels in September and October, helped by ship to ship transfers off Oman and the Emirates and by U.S. escorted transits.
Should Oman keep its silence and protect its role as the go between, or speak out when its own territory is hit? Tell us what you think.
Reporting note: This story is based on reporting by Reuters on November 11, 2026, including confirmation from three sources with knowledge of the matter; Iranian state media and the Fars News Agency, carrying statements by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy; the Institute for the Study of War's Iran Update of November 10, 2026; The Maritime Executive's reporting of November 10, 2026, including a senior Omani official's denial that the navigation aids were struck; The Wall Street Journal's report of an Omani coast guard official confirming an explosion, as carried in secondary reports; and U.S. Energy Information Administration data on oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's claim to have destroyed the island's navigation systems has not been independently verified, and the extent of any damage is unconfirmed.
