Iran claims second tanker hit sea mine in Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday that a second supertanker had struck a sea mine and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz. It had reported a similar collision earlier in the day, but neither claimed strike has been independently confirmed. [2] [3] [1]

The Iranian news agency Tasnim published the Guard’s first statement at 05:40 and its second at 15:40 Iranian time. The later statement explicitly refers to a second tanker, although neither account names a ship. The two announcements do not establish that two separate vessels were hit. [2] [3]

In the later statement, the Guard said the tanker was carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil and that an explosion in its engine room had left it immobilised. It gave no precise location for the alleged collision or information about the crew. [2] [4]

ANP, in a report published by Nieuws.nl, said the British maritime monitoring organisation UKMTO had not reported the alleged Hormuz incident at the time. NOS reported that UKMTO had flagged two other tanker incidents off Jubail, Saudi Arabia, hundreds of kilometres away: one involving an unidentified projectile and the other a grenade fired from a small boat. Those reports do not confirm a mine strike in Hormuz. [1] [5]