Tanker Attack Off Qatar: Strait of Hormuz News, November 5

A tanker has been struck by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar’s northernmost town, placing the latest attack on merchant shipping deep inside the central Gulf and far to the west of the Strait of Hormuz, where most strikes of the Iran war have been concentrated. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, which is run by the Royal Navy, said it received the report at 23:20 UTC on November 4, stating early on November 5 that the status of the crew, the damage assessment and the environmental impact were all unconfirmed. The vessel, its flag and its owner have not been named, and no party has claimed responsibility. The strike is the second reported in almost exactly the same waters in less than a month, highlighting how the danger to tankers has spread well beyond the strait into the approaches of one of the world’s largest gas exporters.

The same centre reported on October 7 that a tanker about 51 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal had been hit at around 19:00 GMT, stating: “A tanker has reported being struck by multiple projectiles. Casualties have been reported.” No ship was named then either, and Doha made no comment on an attack inside Qatar’s exclusive economic zone. The closest strike to the capital came on April 1, when Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said three cruise missiles had been fired from Iran at the fuel oil tanker Aqua 1, leased to QatarEnergy, with two intercepted and the third hitting the ship about 17 nautical miles north of Doha. Qatar’s gas fleet was targeted again when the Q-Max carrier Al Mayeda was struck in the Gulf on October 30, after which the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Doha reserved the right to take all necessary measures to protect its vessels and crews.

The latest attack follows a dense run of incidents over the past week. A tanker took two projectiles in its engine room off Oman’s Limah on November 3, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on November 4 that four tankers had caught fire after striking naval mines, and on November 5 that two tankers and a tugboat had burned in the Strait of Hormuz, claims which named no vessel and which no independent party has confirmed. Iran has sharply restricted traffic through the strait since the war began on February 28, while the U.S. enforces a blockade of Iranian ports and has escorted tankers through Hormuz, and the UK centre counted nine attacks on tankers in the strait in the first six days of October alone.

Each strike the UK centre has logged since late October has been put down to projectiles, an aerial object or charges fixed to a hull rather than sea mines, setting them apart from the Revolutionary Guards’ mine claims, and both attacks north of Qatar were described as projectile hits on ships in open water. Qatar is a mediator between Washington and Tehran, and its waters have now been hit twice in under a month while it hosts talks meant to reopen the strait. The only attribution any government has made for an attack off Qatar this year remains the April 1 statement naming Iranian cruise missiles, and no state has yet said what struck the tanker on November 4 or from where it was fired.