Four oil tankers caught fire after striking sea mines while passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s armed forces said on Thursday (29 October).
A day earlier, the US military had claimed it had cleared the main shipping lanes of the vital waterway of mines.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that over the previous 24 hours three oil tankers had hit sea mines, exploded and caught fire while trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorised southern route.
On Thursday the Iranian army reported a fire on a further tanker. It said the ship struck a mine while sailing through a prohibited and dangerous area in the east of the strait.
The IRGC statement said the first three ships had switched off their radar and all navigation equipment and ignored warnings from the IRGC navy.
It was not immediately known exactly when the incidents happened or which countries’ flags the ships were flying.
Separately, the British maritime security agency UKMTO said late on Thursday night that it had received a report of a fire on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz about 25 nautical miles (46km) north-east of Khasab on the coast of Oman.
The agency had earlier reported two other incidents in the same area. In one, a small sailing vessel caught fire and sank after a maritime security incident.
In the other, an oil tanker was damaged by an unknown projectile or weapon while crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has reported several ships hitting sea mines in recent weeks. In response, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is conducting military operations in the region, again claimed on social media that all mines had been removed from the main shipping routes.
On Thursday, however, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi challenged that claim. “Prove the claim that mines have been cleared from the Strait of Hormuz with independent and impartial evidence, not just with statements,” he wrote on X.
Since the war began on 28 February, Iran has tightly restricted shipping through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. In normal times about a fifth of the world’s oil consumption passes through the waterway.
In response, the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and is helping oil tankers pass through the strait.
CENTCOM said on Sunday that with its help Gulf countries had exported 1.5 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz since the summer.
Iran regards ships using the southern route along the coast of Oman as unauthorised.
“Mines have been laid in the unauthorised routes of the Strait of Hormuz. Responsibility for sailing these routes lies with ship owners and crews. They should not listen to CENTCOM’s misleading statements on social media,” the IRGC said in Thursday’s statement.
In a separate statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed to have seized a US surveillance drone.
“In an offensive operation in the western part of the Strait of Hormuz, the electronic warfare unit of the IRGC navy successfully seized the United States’ MQM-170 drone,” the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from the United States.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report