Two oil tankers and a tugboat have caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday, in separate incidents in one of the world’s most important shipping routes.
According to the IRGC, a large tanker struck a naval mine while trying to pass through a route south of the strait that Iran considers illegal, and caught fire and came to a halt. In a second incident, another supertanker caught fire as it was leaving the same route in the eastern part of the waterway, and a tugboat that approached it to help put out the flames also caught fire.
The IRGC said the vessels had been using a passage it had not authorised. Its statement, carried by Iranian state media, said its naval forces continued to control the management of the strait. The claims have not been independently verified, and the IRGC did not give details of any casualties or of the extent of the damage.
The incidents follow a similar claim on Wednesday, when the IRGC said four oil tankers had been destroyed after striking naval mines while using the prohibited route south of the strait, and that two other vessels had been seized. United States Central Command has previously rejected earlier Iranian claims of mine strikes in the strait as inaccurate.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre reported that a tanker was struck by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal in Qatar, in an incident dated to late on Wednesday night. The agency said the status of the crew and the damage to the vessel were unconfirmed.
The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s most strategically important maritime routes, carrying large volumes of oil and gas exports from Gulf countries to international markets. Any disruption there is watched closely by energy markets around the world.
The latest fires come at a time of intense tension over shipping through the strait, with Iran asserting control over which vessels may use particular routes and warning that ships using unauthorised passages face consequences.
Iran has also said its forces intercepted and brought down two uncrewed aircraft during the incidents, a claim that has likewise not been independently confirmed.
For now, the full picture remains unclear. With the Iranian account unverified and no independent confirmation of the fires, the scale of the damage and the fate of the crews are still to be established.
What is certain is that the strait, through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes, remains a flashpoint, and that the latest incidents will add to concerns about the safety of shipping in the Gulf.
Energy markets and shipping companies will be watching closely in the coming days for any further incidents, and for any independent confirmation of what happened to the vessels involved.
