Tankers Hit Mines in Hormuz? Iran Claims Four Destroyed

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed that four oil tankers were destroyed after striking naval mines on what it calls a prohibited route south of the Strait of Hormuz, and that its forces have seized two further vessels in the same waters. In a statement issued early on November 4, the Guards said the tankers were still burning and that their air defences had shot down what they described as the 56th American MQ-9 Reaper drone downed over the strait. The statement named no tanker, flag, owner or position, and no maritime authority or shipping company has reported a ship lost to a mine. It is the third time in two weeks that the Guards have counted four ships lost in one announcement, as Tehran seeks to turn its hold over the waterway into leverage in talks with Washington.

The record kept by the forces monitoring the strait has repeatedly failed to match these announcements. After the Guards claimed on August 31 that a supertanker had struck two mines, U.S. Central Command stated that no ships had hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz and called the announcement an attempt to intimidate commercial shipping through disinformation. Its commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, had said in late August that U.S. forces had cleared the internationally recognised traffic separation scheme. The multinational Joint Maritime Information Centre stated on October 18 that there was “no substantiation” for a Guards claim a day earlier that two supertankers had struck mines, while a containership the Guards said had hit a mine on October 14 matched the GFS Pride, which the centre had already identified as struck by an unknown projectile.

The ships confirmed hit in recent days were struck by projectiles or charges fixed by boat rather than by sea mines, with a tanker hit by two projectiles in its engine room about 14 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Limah on November 3, and another set ablaze by limpet mines off Khasab on October 29. Ships using the southern route have been sailing with their identification systems switched off on U.S. guidance, which the Guards cite as the reason vessels strike mines and which Central Command says keeps Iran from locating them through commercial satellite imagery. The Guards’ MQ-9 tally has meanwhile risen from a claimed 54th on October 20 to a 55th around the time of the U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island on November 2, with no such loss confirmed by the U.S. military.

Traffic through the strait was running about 70 percent below prewar levels in mid-October, with 254 transits in the week ending October 14, and the Joint Maritime Information Centre has kept its threat level for the waterway at severe while warning of attempted mining near the shipping lanes. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on November 2 that the strait could be reopened within two days if the United States lifted the naval blockade of Iranian ports it has enforced since July, while Qatari mediators said both sides were reviewing proposals with responses expected within 36 hours. Against Iran’s mine stocks, estimated by U.S. officials at between 5,000 and 8,000 before the war, the U.S. Navy has only four dedicated minesweepers left in service, all of them Avenger class ships based at Sasebo in Japan.