Iran Says Three Tankers Hit Mines and Caught Fire in the Strait of Hormuz

Update on October 31: Iran says a fourth tanker is ablaze, a claim that is not verified

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy said late on Friday, October 30, that a fourth oil tanker had caught fire after striking a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, bringing to four the tankers it says have burned there since early Friday.

This is an IRGC claim reported by Reuters, Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency. It is not independently verified.

The fourth vessel was a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil, according to the IRGC Navy statement. The IRGC said: "The supertanker is currently ablaze".

The IRGC said the supertanker was attempting to leave the Strait via the unauthorised southern route and ignored repeated radio warnings from Iranian naval forces before striking a mine, causing a massive explosion.

Reuters said it could not immediately verify the IRGC statements, and it was not clear which ships were involved or which flags they flew. No casualties have been reported for the fourth tanker in the sources opened for this update.

Separately, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported a vessel hit by an unidentified projectile 40 nautical miles south of Iran's Lavan Island at 1800 GMT on Friday.

The original report follows.

Update on October 30: tanker identified as Louise 1, crew safe

Maritime security sources have identified the tanker that caught fire off Khasab as the Panama flagged Louise 1, Reuters reported on Friday. A small boat approached the tanker on October 29 and attached two limpet mines to its hull, causing a fire in the engine room that temporarily disabled the vessel, maritime sources said. United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, in Warning 187-26, placed this incident 25 nautical miles, or 46 kilometres, northeast of Khasab, Oman. That location comes from the new reporting. The original report below, based on the first UKMTO notice, gave a position about 9 nautical miles north of Khasab for a vessel seen on fire, and it was not then known whether that vessel was one of the three tankers in the Guards statement.

UKMTO said the crew was safe, there was no environmental impact, and the fire had been extinguished. It said the vessel, which it did not name, was continuing to its next port of call. Three maritime security sources identified the vessel as the Louise 1, according to Reuters. The sources said this was the first successful use of limpet mines in the waterway since the United States war with Iran began in February, and that a separate attempt in September using such devices did not detonate. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

Reuters also reported that Ukrainian forces hit the Louise 1 in July with naval drones in the Black Sea. Ukraine's SBU security service said the vessel was transporting Russian oil and was part of the so called shadow fleet. The vessel's Panama based operator, listed in shipping databases as Aquarius Maritime Ventures, could not be immediately reached for comment.

"The apparent ability of a small craft to approach a transiting tanker, deploy explosive devices and withdraw presents a significant security concern, particularly in the Strait's congested shipping lanes," the Greece based maritime risk group Marisks said in a note on Friday, as reported by Reuters.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that three oil tankers exploded and caught fire after hitting sea mines while trying to cross a route south of the Strait of Hormuz that Tehran calls unauthorised, Reuters reported. The Guards said the incidents took place over the past 24 hours and that the tankers were left stranded along the southern coast of the waterway.

What the Guards said happened

In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Guards navy said the three tankers had switched off their radar and navigation systems and ignored warnings before they struck the mines. The navy said the route is littered with mines and held the owners and crews of the vessels responsible for using it. It also urged shipping operators not to rely on what it described as misleading information from United States Central Command.

"Facts on the ground will speak for themselves," the statement said, according to a report by the Malaysian news agency Bernama carried by Media Selangor. The statement added that any provocative action that disregards the regulations governing the strait will be met with a firm response. Reports citing the Guards also said the incidents caused environmental pollution in the strait, a claim for which no assessment has been published.

A vessel seen burning off Oman

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, known as UKMTO, said it received a report of a vessel on fire in the strait on October 29, about 9 nautical miles, or 17 kilometres, north of Khasab, Oman. The master of a passing third party vessel reported seeing the other vessel on fire. UKMTO said the status of the crew was unknown, and that there was no damage assessment or environmental impact report at the time of its notice.

It is not known whether the vessel seen off Khasab was one of the three tankers named in the Guards statement. None of the reports published on Thursday named the vessels, their owners or their flags, and no report gave casualty figures.

The claim has not been independently verified

The Guards claim has not been independently verified. Reuters reported the statement on Thursday, Bernama reported the same statement through the Iranian news agency IRNA, and UKMTO confirmed a fire report in the strait, but no outside body has confirmed that three tankers struck mines, how the fires started, or how much damage was done.

The reported incidents come during a United States blockade of Iranian ports. The Joint Maritime Information Center said on October 28 that the United States is enforcing a blockade of all Iranian ports and coastlines, applying to vessels of every flag and ownership, and that neutral vessels moving between neutral ports in the Gulf of Oman and the strait may be questioned, boarded and searched. Data from the International Maritime Organization, current to October 27, counted 121 confirmed incidents and 24 confirmed seafarer deaths in the crisis, according to SAFETY4SEA.

For shipping, the practical position did not change on Thursday. Vessels that do not need to enter the area have been advised to stay clear, and vessels that do transit have been told to keep a listening watch and follow directions from United States forces. What changed is the risk picture: if even part of the Guards account is accurate, mines are now being reported on a southern route that some ships appear to be using to avoid attention, with their tracking and navigation systems switched off.