The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the vessels had entered what it described as an unsafe or mined route under US pressure. It provided no names, flags, casualty details or evidence, and the incident has not been independently verified.
The claim followed a UK Maritime Trade Operations alert reporting a vessel on fire approximately eight nautical miles northwest of Kumzar, Oman. UKMTO said military authorities had supplied the information but stressed that the cause of the blaze remained unverified.
Iran warned that Hormuz would remain unsafe for petrochemical cargoes and “not even a single drop” of oil or gas while US military operations continued.
Washington responded with a ninth consecutive day of strikes on Iran. US Central Command said its latest wave was intended to reduce Tehran’s ability to attack merchant ships operating in the strait’s shipping lanes.
Traffic is already thinning dramatically. Clarksons data shows the seven-day moving average of crude tankers transiting Hormuz has fallen to roughly two vessels, down from about six a week ago. Total shipping transits are following the same path, with the seven-day average dropping from around 36 vessels last week to about 15.
Source: splash247.com
