Hormuz Mines Cleared? Iran Claims 5 More Tankers Hit

Iran’s regular army and the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have claimed that five more oil tankers struck naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz on November 11 and 12, in three statements that named none of the vessels, their flags or their owners. The claims run directly against U.S. Central Command, whose commander Admiral Brad Cooper declared on August 28 that all Iranian sea mines had been cleared from the internationally recognised transit routes, and repeated on October 30 that the primary shipping lanes remained clear. Added to the 12 strikes Iranian forces claimed between October 31 and November 5 and three more announced on November 10, the statements take the number of tankers Tehran says have been hit to at least 20 in under two weeks. The gap between that tally and what maritime monitors can verify has made the strait one of the war’s most significant information battles.

The first statement came on the morning of November 11, when the Iranian Navy said a tanker had caught fire after hitting a mine in an “unsafe and restricted area” in the eastern strait, stating: “Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz requires coordination with the armed forces and compliance with maritime laws.” The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre reported an incident involving a tanker the same day, with the crew’s condition and the damage not yet known, and it remains uncertain whether both accounts describe one ship. On November 12 the Guards’ navy said two “violating” supertankers carrying more than four million barrels of oil had exploded overnight on what it calls an unauthorised southern route, having switched off their navigation systems, and that afternoon the army reported two more tankers ablaze east of the strait, placing “primary responsibility” on President Donald Trump.

The two services have kept separate and partly conflicting tallies since late October, the army placing its strikes east of the strait and the Guards on the southern passage near Omani waters, where the IRGC has also claimed strikes on navigation equipment on Oman’s Didamar Island. That corridor is the route U.S. forces use to escort commercial traffic while blockading Iranian ports, with Central Command having stated on October 25 that more than 3,000 vessels had transited with its support over six months. The Guards’ warning that any ship which switches off its systems and cooperates with the U.S. military would meet the same fate highlights that the claims are aimed as much at shipowners and insurers as at Washington.

Very large crude carriers typically load about two million barrels each, so the Guards’ figure is consistent with a pair of fully laden supertankers, yet none of the five vessels had been publicly identified by an owner, a flag state or a monitoring body by the morning of November 13. The pattern matches Iran’s earlier mine claims, none of which named a ship, while two vessels Tehran presented as mine victims in late October were recorded by monitors as hit by a projectile and by charges attached above the waterline. On November 10, when the Guards claimed three tankers, the maritime centre recorded a projectile strike off Limah and a second incident in the strait, neither of which it attributed to a mine.