Iran Claims Four Tankers Hit Mines in Hormuz; No Independent Confirmation
The Revolutionary Guard said tankers caught fire on a prohibited route through the strait. BBC Verify said it found no evidence that four tankers were destroyed.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Wednesday that four oil tankers caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The claim has not been independently verified.
What Iran claims
According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said the tankers were trying to travel through a prohibited southern route in the strait. It said two of the vessels were still burning and that two additional tankers had been intercepted, the BBC reported. Iranian outlets Mehr and Tasnim, as well as Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, carried the claims.
The IRGC also said it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone over the strait.
What has been verified
BBC Verify said it had investigated the claims and had not found any evidence that four tankers were destroyed. US Central Command has disputed earlier Iranian claims about downed drones.
Separately, the UK Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, said a tanker was struck by two unknown projectiles about 14 nautical miles northeast of Limah, in Oman’s Musandam peninsula, on Tuesday evening. No casualties were reported.
On Monday, an Indian crew member aboard a wooden dhow was killed in an attack northeast of Limah, and 13 other crew members were rescued by Omani authorities, according to the BBC.
The southern route
Iran has insisted on keeping some measure of control over the waterway and has begun targeting vessels using a southern route through Omani waters that avoids its preferred route through Iranian waters, the BBC reported. The US military has been providing protection to tankers moving oil out of Gulf Arab states.
Background
The strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments usually pass, was effectively closed after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February. A preliminary agreement in June to end the war and reopen the strait collapsed within weeks.
Why it matters
Shipping disruptions in Hormuz ripple through global energy prices. US gas prices have risen sharply since the war began, a factor that exit polls showed weighed on voters in Tuesday’s midterms.
What to watch
Independent confirmation from shipping companies, insurers or maritime authorities will be key to judging the IRGC’s claims.
Developing: some details in this report are preliminary or unconfirmed and are identified as such in the text.
Sources: Associated Press, BBC, UK Maritime Trade Operations.
Get the BURN VOC Briefing
Top US news in your inbox. Free.
This story is published by BURN VOC under its newsroom byline and follows our editorial standards. Sources are named in the story. To report an error, email news@burnvoc.com. Editorial Standards · Corrections · About BURN VOC
