Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that two oil tankers were left on fire in the Strait of Hormuz after explosions, in the latest in a series of incidents in the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world's traded oil passes. The Guards later said a third tanker had exploded after striking a naval mine, deepening a maritime confrontation that has already cut traffic through the strait to a fraction of its normal level.
In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the two tankers had been travelling along what it called an unauthorised route through the strait when they were "brought to a halt following massive explosions and are left burning". One of the vessels, a supertanker, had struck a naval mine, resulting in an explosion, the Guards said. The second tanker, which the Guards claimed was under the escort of the American military and attempting a covert passage via an illegal route, also suffered an incident, the statement added.
Later in the day, the Guards said a third tanker travelling on an unauthorised route had exploded in the afternoon after striking a naval mine. The statement did not identify any of the tankers, their flags or their operators, and gave no details of possible casualties or the condition of their crews. There was no immediate confirmation from the United States military of the alleged involvement of American fighter jets, which the Guards claimed had been supporting the second vessel.
Separately, the Emirati state oil company ADNOC said one of its vessels had "sustained damage following an attack in the UAE's territorial waters" in the Gulf during the afternoon, although it was unclear whether that ship was one of those mentioned by Tehran. British maritime agency UKMTO also reported that a tanker had been "struck by an unknown projectile" off the Omani coast, near the Strait of Hormuz, with the crew reported safe and no environmental damage.
The incidents come in the middle of a war that began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. Since then Tehran has heavily restricted traffic through the strait, insisting that vessels use routes authorised by the Islamic republic, and has repeatedly announced that ships using other routes have caught fire. The United States has responded with a naval blockade on Iranian ports and has helped tankers travel through the strait, which normally carries about a fifth of global oil.
Maritime traffic through the waterway has been severely disrupted for months. According to Lloyd's List Intelligence, cited in recent reporting, Hormuz traffic had fallen to roughly 20 per cent of its prewar level, from a baseline of about 138 ships a day, and the Joint Maritime Information Centre has kept its threat assessment for the area at severe, logging 177 maritime security incidents since 1 March.
The Guards warned that unauthorised passage remained unsafe and threatened similar consequences for vessels cooperating with the US military that attempted to use the route. The statement framed commercial tankers using the unauthorised lanes as acting on "malicious instructions" of the American military, language that has alarmed shipping insurers and owners, who say the distinction between civilian and military targets in the strait has become dangerously blurred.
Oil markets have been watching the strait closely all year. Brent crude suffered its steepest weekly fall since 2020 only last week, as Saudi Arabia cut prices and hopes of a deal between Washington and Tehran stripped the war premium from oil, but each new incident in Hormuz revives fears that a miscalculation could shut the chokepoint altogether and send prices sharply higher.
For now, the basic facts of Tuesday's incidents remain partly unverified: the names of the tankers, the fate of their crews and the exact sequence of explosions have not been confirmed by independent sources. What is clear is that the strait, the world's most important oil artery, is now a place where commercial ships can be stopped, struck and set on fire, and where the line between a shipping lane and a front line has all but disappeared.
Maritime authorities are advising vessels to stay in close contact with naval coordination centres and to use only authorised routes, while shipowners weigh whether the risk of transit is worth the cargo. With the war in its ninth month and neither side showing signs of backing down at sea, further incidents in the strait look likely before the year is out.
