TEHRAN — Three oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines in and around the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, Iran’s navy and its Revolutionary Guards said, in the latest reported attack on commercial shipping in the waterway at the center of the war between the United States and Iran.
Iranian state media reported one tanker hit a mine in the eastern Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning, while two others struck mines later in the day. The Revolutionary Guards’ navy said the two evening tankers had been trying to cross without authorization with their navigation and automatic identification systems switched off. “Two offending oil tankers, which were secretly attempting to transit the unauthorised Strait of Hormuz with their navigation and automatic identification systems turned off, exploded and caught fire after hitting naval mines,” the Guards said, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency. One of the vessels was described as a supertanker. The Guards said two other tankers turned back after warnings from their naval traffic control center.
In a separate statement, Iran’s conventional navy said the morning tanker had been sailing in a prohibited zone east of the strait, also with its tracking systems off, and warned that any vessel entering the zone would meet the same fate. The statements gave no details about casualties, the tankers’ names, flags or destinations.
The claims have not been independently confirmed. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the reports, which came only from Iranian military authorities, and the UK Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors shipping in the region, had not confirmed the incidents at the time of publication. The U.S. military has said it cleared the main shipping routes through the waterway of mines. The reports followed a Guards release a day earlier of footage it said showed smoke rising from a vessel carrying liquefied gas that had struck a mine in the south of the strait.
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow passage between Iran and Oman through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Iran has imposed restrictions on vessels seeking to pass through the strait and has attacked ships it says violated those restrictions, as it seeks to assert control over the waterway and put pressure on the United States, according to Reuters. United Nations officials, citing International Maritime Organization data, have warned of a wider rise in attacks on commercial shipping in and near the strait, with October the busiest month for incidents this year.
Why it matters: even an unverified claim of new mine strikes can raise insurance costs, slow tanker traffic and lift oil prices, because shipping companies must decide whether to risk the route. What happens next depends on whether maritime authorities or the ships’ owners confirm any of the three incidents, and whether traffic through the strait falls in the coming days. Until then, the vessel identities and the condition of their crews remain unknown, and readers should treat the Iranian account as a claim, not a confirmed event.
