Ship attacks surge as US and Iran contest Strait of Hormuz

Attacks on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz have reached their highest reported level of the war, as the United States and Iran make competing claims of control over the waterway. A British maritime monitor says the true number of attacks may be higher because many vessels do not report them.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency counted at least 10 attacks in the week ending Friday, according to CBS News, while Al Jazeera reported a UKMTO figure of 12 for the week ending October 16. One ship sank. UKMTO said it was “struggling to accurately report” the total because most vessels attacked refuse to report incidents to the agency. CBS News reported 23 attacks since the start of October; Al Jazeera said the month had recorded the most ship attacks since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28.

On Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil caught fire after striking a mine in the strait. The Guards said it had taken an unauthorized route with US support and had turned off its tracking systems. They did not give the vessel’s precise location. Iran posted footage it said showed the tanker burning; its account of the cause was not independently verified in the reports.

The United States disputes Iran’s accounts of mine strikes. US Central Command said it had cleared naval mines from the strait and that vessels were being hit by projectiles, Al Jazeera reported. It said a container ship, the M/V GFS Pride, was struck by an Iranian projectile Thursday, not a mine as Iran had claimed. The ship sank while being towed to shore.

UKMTO also reported two attacks Friday off Saudi Arabia. In one, a tanker’s master said a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat damaged the vessel. Its crew was safe, though the extent of damage and any environmental impact were not yet known. Another tanker was hit by an unknown projectile; its crew was evacuated safely, and no environmental impact had been reported.

US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said Friday that 400 ships carrying 100 million barrels of oil had passed through the strait over the previous week. “The Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran,” he said. UKMTO separately counted 125 outbound and 129 inbound transits over seven days, according to Al Jazeera. Iran has not released comparable figures and says Washington exaggerates shipping numbers. An Iranian army spokesman said Friday that the strait would reopen if the US left the Middle East. “If it does not leave, we will expel it,” Mohammad Akraminia wrote on X.

The fighting has spread beyond the strait. Police blamed Iran-backed Houthi rebels for two missiles that struck the airport in Aden, Yemen, on Friday night; no casualties were reported, and no group immediately claimed responsibility. Iran rejected Saudi accusations that it was involved in Houthi attacks on the kingdom and offered to mediate. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said Friday that Tehran was ready for dialogue and did not seek nuclear weapons. “We will not bow to coercion,” he said, condemning US sanctions.