Reported by Al Jazeera
Iranian forces say five oil tankers and a tugboat have caught fire in several incidents in the Strait of Hormuz.
At least five tankers have been damaged in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian forces said, making clear that shipping would remain in peril as long as the United States and Israel’s war on the country is unresolved.
Since the war on Iran began in late February, Tehran has severely restricted traffic through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil consumption.
More from the original report
“Last night … a large oil tanker attempting to pass through the illegal passageway south of the Strait of Hormuz suffered a fire after striking a mine and was brought to a halt,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told the Fars news agency on Thursday.
“Another supertanker was halted by a massive fire while exiting the eastern Strait of Hormuz. A tugboat that had approached the supertanker to extinguish the fire also caught fire,” the IRGC added.
The Iranian army later said three more tankers were hit by naval mines and caught fire.
“Early this morning, a violating oil tanker – navigating through an unsafe area east of the Strait of Hormuz – caught fire and came to a halt after striking a naval mine,” the army said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“Today at around noon, two more oil tankers struck naval mines and caught fire in the unsafe waters east of the Strait of Hormuz,” said another army statement carried by IRNA.
Separately, the British military said a tanker was struck by two projectiles off Qatar’s coast.
The vessel was hit about 50 nautical miles (about 93 kilometres) north of Qatar’s Madinat ash-Shamal on Wednesday at 23:20 GMT, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on Thursday.
UKMTO did not identify the tanker or which country’s flag it was sailing under. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
In an incident last week, a Qatari tanker was hit by “unidentified objects” while sailing in the Gulf.
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Al Mayeda was hit…