ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The British navy monitor on Wednesday confirmed an incident that involved a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. The statement coincided with a semi-state-owned Saudi maritime shipping company reporting that "two Filipino crew members" had been killed in an incident involving one of their vessels in the key waterway.
UKMTO said it received a "verified" and "time-late" report that "a tanker was involved in a security incident resulting in two casualties." The incident took place in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and resulted in no "environmental impact at this time," the monitor added.
"Authorities are investigating," UKMTO said, advising vessels to "transit with caution and report any suspicious activity."
While the British navy monitor did not explicitly name the vessel, the semi-state-owned Saudi maritime shipping company Bahri said in a Wednesday statement that one of its vessels, the Sidr, was "involved in a security incident while transiting the Strait of Hormuz" on Monday evening.
"It is with profound sadness that Bahri confirms the loss of two of its Filipino seafarers as a result of the incident," the statement said, adding that the company "remains in continuous contact with the vessel and is coordinating closely with the relevant authorities and maritime industry stakeholders, while continuing to closely monitor developments."
Bahri further expressed commitment to "operating in accordance with the highest standards of safety, security, and environmental protection."
The Strait of Hormuz - a vital waterway through which around one-fifth of global oil supplies pass - has seen no return to normal shipping since the US and Israel launched a joint aerial campaign on February 28, striking thousands of targets across Iran over six weeks.
Tehran responded with thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - while also launching retaliatory strikes against Israel.
The two sides reached a preliminary ceasefire in early April, followed by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a truce on all fronts and set a 60-day window for negotiating a final agreement, extendable only by mutual consent.
Despite the MoU, Iran and the US have traded multiple rounds of strikes and counterstrikes, the latest of which escalated on July 8 before subsiding in late July.
As of late Wednesday, the two sides had been locked in a new round of tit-for-tat since Sunday, with US Central Command (CENTCOM) stating that its forces had "completed" a wave of strikes against Iranian military targets as Tehran indicated its response was underway.
