Two tanker alerts off Saudi Arabia leave number of ships hit unclear

UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) issued two warnings on Saturday about reported attacks on tankers off Saudi Arabia the previous day. Ships in the area were advised to travel with caution, but the warnings do not establish that two different tankers were hit. Reuters said it could not determine whether the reports referred to the same incident. [1] [3]

The first warning placed a reported projectile strike at 09:00 UTC on Friday, 68 nautical miles north-east of Al Jubail. UKMTO said the crew were safe and had been evacuated. No environmental impact had been reported at the time. [1]

According to Anadolu, a second UKMTO warning placed a report at 19:22 UTC, about 78 nautical miles north-east of Al Jubail. The tanker's captain reported that a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat had damaged the vessel's rear port side. The crew were reported safe, while the full extent of the damage and any environmental impact remained unclear. The captain's account does not establish what weapon was used. [4]

The identity of the vessel or vessels is also uncertain. Nieuws.nl, in an ANP/AFP report, attributed to maritime security firm Vanguard a claim that one was the oil tanker Safeen Principal. Yet Maritime Optima and VesselFinder list SAFEEN PRINCIPAL, IMO 9799927, as a container ship. Greek broadcaster ERT, citing news agency ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ, separately attributed to Vanguard a different identification: the tanker ST3. Neither account settles which ship was involved. [2] [6] [7] [8]

Separately, Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy claimed a supertanker had struck a mine and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz. It did not name the ship; that claim concerns a different location and does not confirm either report near Al Jubail. [5] [9]