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Iran’s army said an oil tanker caught fire in a restricted maritime zone east of the Strait of Hormuz, as attacks on commercial shipping around the strategic waterway reached their highest weekly level since the United States-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic began.
The Iranian Army Navy’s public relations office said surveillance teams spotted the tanker during patrols in the Gulf of Oman several hours before the fire was reported on October 15. It noted that the vessel had switched off its tracking systems while attempting to navigate through what Iran described as a prohibited maritime zone
The announcement followed a record week of reported attacks on vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz. BBC Verify‘s analysis of incident reports from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency found that 12 vessels reported being attacked between October 5 and October 11, compared with 10 the previous week.
Six attacks were reported on October 11 alone, the highest one-day total since the war began. Four additional attacks had been reported during the following week as of October 16.
Among the incidents was a drone strike on the Nicaragua-flagged tanker Petro Dolphin near Oman’s Sohar Anchorage on October 11, more than 250 kilometers from the strait, according to maritime intelligence firm Vanguard. Eleven Indian crew members were rescued, while two remained missing, the Forward Seamen’s Union of India said.
On October 13, the Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride sank after being struck by an unidentified projectile in the strait. All 21 crew members were evacuated safely.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released footage that appeared to show the vessel sinking and said it had been carrying 2,500 containers of contraband while following an unauthorized route.
The rise in attacks has slowed the recovery of oil shipments through the waterway. Data from trade intelligence firm Kpler showed that about 12.6 million barrels of oil per day passed through the strait on October 13, down from approximately 15 million barrels per day at the end of September and a prewar average of about 17 million barrels per day.
Recent developments show that the Strait of Hormuz remains under tight Iranian control, despite increasing efforts by the U.S. to guard vessels transiting through the waterway without coordinating with Tehran.
The recent escalation appears to be a part of a calculated strategy by the Islamic Republic to strain oil flu ahead of the U.S. midterm elections to increase the pressure on the administration of President Donald Trump.
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