How Many Ships Has Iran Attacked in the Strait of Hormuz?

The two most-used counts put it between about 130 and 163, depending on what is counted. The UK Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the Royal Navy, said in its weekly report of November 13 that it had recorded 163 conflict-related maritime incidents since February 28 across the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and that 141 of them involved damage to a vessel. In the latest week alone it logged eight incidents: five in the strait, two in the Gulf and one in the Gulf of Oman.

The International Maritime Organization, the UN shipping agency, keeps a narrower list of attacks it has verified. It counted at least 130 attacks on commercial vessels in the region by early November, up from 80 verified attacks in and around the strait in September.

Neither number is a count of separate ships. Some vessels have been hit more than once, the UK center counts incidents such as suspicious approaches as well as strikes, and it has said its public record is probably incomplete because many reports cannot be verified quickly. Our explainer What Is UKMTO? sets out how its warnings work.

Iran says it strikes ships that defy its rules, but most attacks are logged with no attacker named. Since the war began, Iran has said that only ships it approves may pass, and on November 5 the Revolutionary Guards’ navy declared the strait unsafe and closed to any vessel that does not coordinate with Tehran. Its statements since then claim ships hit on what it calls unauthorized routes, but they rarely name the vessels.

Most strikes reach the record as an unidentified projectile or drone hitting a ship, with no government or group taking responsibility. That is why the honest answer to how many ships Iran has attacked is that Iran claims some, the bulk are unattributed, and the total of all attacks is the figure that can be checked.

The United States has struck ships too, as part of its blockade of Iranian ports. Central Command said US forces destroyed the Iranian tanker Kylo in the Gulf of Oman and disabled two other Iranian tankers on September 5, after Iran fired on US warships. On November 7 it said it had turned back 147 ships and disabled five since July, the latest the cargo ship Huda in the Gulf of Oman.

At least three merchant ships have sunk since February 28, by the International Maritime Organization’s casualty records as of mid-October. The Maltese-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige was hit by a projectile on March 4 while sailing through the strait, was abandoned by its crew and sank in early April. The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged bulk carrier Cape Dao was struck on September 23, killing one crew member, and later sank near the strait. The Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride sank in the strait on October 14 after a projectile strike; all 21 crew were taken off safely.

Smaller craft have gone down as well, among them a dhow that sank north of Khasab, Oman, on October 29. The Iranian tanker Kylo was sunk by US forces on September 5, by Central Command’s own account. Iran’s own claims of tankers destroyed, such as the four it said were destroyed by mines on November 4, have not been confirmed.

Iran claims dozens, and none has been confirmed. Since October 17 the Revolutionary Guards and Iran’s regular navy have announced a run of tankers struck by mines in or near the strait, usually without naming the ships. Between November 13 and the morning of November 14 alone they claimed four: a gas carrier on the route south of the strait, two tankers that the Guards said exploded overnight, one of them a supertanker, and a tanker the navy said caught fire in the eastern strait after entering a prohibited zone with its tracking system off.

US Central Command rejects the claims. Its commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, said on October 25 that the main transit routes remained free and clear of Iranian mines, and Central Command called Iran’s reports false on October 28. Our count of the claims is in How Many Tankers Hit Mines in Hormuz?, and how big Iran’s stock could be is set out in How Many Naval Mines Does Iran Have?

October 2026 was the worst month of the war for attacks on ships. The UK Maritime Trade Operations center counted 35 vessels hit in October, more than in any month since the war began. Iran had said it was stepping up its strikes in answer to the US blockade of its ports and tougher sanctions.

The war’s first weeks were the other peak. Ships were struck within days of the US and Israeli strikes on February 28, and on March 11 the UK center reported three cargo ships hit by projectiles in a single day, one of them in the strait. November has kept up October’s rhythm, with eight incidents logged in the week to November 13.

Twenty-five seafarers have been killed in attacks on shipping in the region since the war began, the International Maritime Organization said in November, and the United Nations gives the same figure for deaths in and around the strait. The toll was at least 10 in April and at least 22 by September.

The most recent deaths include an Indian sailor killed when the cargo vessel Al Jusufi was hit off Limah, Oman, on November 2, and a seafarer killed aboard the tanker Velos Sapphire, struck in the Gulf on November 5 on its way to Bahrain. The IMO’s secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez, said in November that seafarers “continue to lose their lives, suffer serious injuries, face abandonment.” The IMO says thousands more are at risk, among them crews on ships that cannot leave the Gulf; the rules Iran sets for passage are explained in What Is the Persian Gulf Strait Authority?