Thursday 29 October 2026
Iran says three tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and a British agency reports one ship on fire
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday that three oil tankers exploded and caught fire after striking sea mines on a southern route through the Strait of Hormuz that Tehran calls unauthorized, and that the ships were abandoned along the southern shore. No vessel was named and no outside authority has confirmed the mine claim. The British maritime agency UKMTO separately reported a vessel on fire about nine nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman, sighted by a passing ship, with the crew's condition unknown and no cause given.
Two accounts of fire in the Strait of Hormuz reached the shipping world on Thursday, and they do not yet meet. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy said three oil tankers struck naval mines over the preceding 24 hours while trying to leave the strait by a southern route Tehran has not authorized. The Guard said the tankers had switched off their radar and navigation systems, ignored warnings, caught fire after the explosions and were left abandoned along the southern shore of the waterway. It blamed the ships' owners and crews for pollution in the strait and warned vessels not to rely on what it called misleading information from US Central Command.
The Guard named no ship, no flag and no crew, and gave no casualty figures. The Associated Press said it could not independently confirm the claim. Tankers have kept moving through the strait under American military protection, according to shipping data from Lloyd's List Intelligence cited by the AP, while the United States enforces its blockade of Iranian ports.
What stands on a separate footing is the British report. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, the Royal Navy linked reporting point for merchant shipping in the region, said it received a report on October 29 of a vessel on fire about nine nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman. The master of a third party vessel sighted the burning ship. UKMTO said the crew's condition is unknown, gave no cause for the fire and advised vessels to transit with caution and report suspicious activity while authorities investigate. No one has established whether the burning ship UKMTO reported is one of the three tankers in the Iranian account.
The strait carries a large share of the world's traded oil, and Iran has said it will stay closed until Tehran's conditions are met. The claims arrived on the same day Iranian officials rejected the latest mediation draft from Qatar as unacceptable ideas rather than an offer, and while American officials warn Gulf governments to prepare for possible renewed strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections. President Trump has made no final decision on new attacks.
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