ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it struck seven vessels in the western Strait of Hormuz and warned of expanding further hostilities, an Iranian outlet affiliated with IRGC said Thursday, even as Tehran said its offer to reopen the strategic waterway through diplomacy remains on the table.
“Last night, three violating vessels were involved in an incident after striking naval mines west of the Strait of Hormuz,” IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported, citing a statement from the IRGC Navy Public Relations Office, adding that “four violating vessels conducting ship-to-ship oil transfers were struck simultaneously and are burning in flames.”
The statement also warned the US military that “the scope of confrontation will extend to [US and allied] bases in the region” if escalations continued.
Sabreen News, an Iraqi Telegram channel affiliated with pro-Iranian militias, posted a video showing a heavily damaged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, captioning it: “Footage of the violating vessel that was targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.”
However, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has not reported attacks on seven vessels in the last 24 hours. The latest attack reported was Wednesday, 11 nautical miles off Bukha, Oman, where local authorities reported that a tanker had been struck by “an unknown projectile.”
The claims come days after the IRGC claimed Tuesday that several vessels collided with naval mines while attempting to exit through the “unauthorized southern route,” as the UKMTO reported incidents on Monday involving a tanker and military forces, as opposed to mines.
Meanwhile, the British maritime organization stated in its weekly report on Friday that it was “struggling to accurately report [the] true number of attacks with [the] majority of vessels attacked refusing to report to UKMTO,” citing constraints due to a lack of verification.
The Strait of Hormuz has become a major flashpoint in the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran that began in late February.
The alleged attacks on commercial ships in the vital waterway come amid Tehran’s renewed offer on Sunday to reopen the Strait if the US agreed to Tehran’s conditions.
Both sides have imposed tit-for-tat restrictions on the vital waterway that was responsible for transporting around a fifth of the world’s oil supply before the outbreak of the war.
The US naval blockade, imposed in mid-July, aimed to economically isolate Iran from transporting oil internationally and limit Iran’s economic power.
Iran has continued to fire drones and missiles at passing ships, demanding “permission” from passing ships in an attempt to assert its own control over the Strait.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that there would be "designated routes" for Baghdad despite Iran’s closure of the Strait and that Tehran and Muscat had established designated maritime routes for Iraqi traffic in the Strait, recognizing Baghdad’s economic losses due to the war.
