TEHRAN: Five oil tankers and a tugboat caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and army said in separate statements, according to local media on Thursday.
Since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, Tehran has severely restricted traffic through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil consumption.
It regularly attacks ships it accuses of transiting without its authorisation.
The United States military has in response imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers travel the strait.
“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,” the Guards told Fars news agency.
“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 Guards said.
The Iranian army later said three more tankers were hit by naval mines.
“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.
There has been no confirmation of the incidents from maritime officials.
British monitor UKMTO reported a tanker being struck by “two unidentified projectiles” around 50 nautical miles (90 kilometres) off the north coast of Qatar, without providing details on any damage or casualties.
That area is around 500 kilometres west of Hormuz, in the centre of the Gulf.
Fars also reported that the IRGC navy’s electronic warfare unit had taken control of two LUCAS drones, a US-developed model whose name is short for Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System.
Last month, the US military said it had helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil via Hormuz since the summer.
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