TEHRAN — Three oil tankers struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday, as Tehran threatened further attacks on shipping and cutting undersea cables while promising to unveil new weapons in its arsenal.
“Two violating oil tankers were set ablaze and halted due to the explosion of mines planted by the brave sailors of the IRGC Navy at an illegal crossing point in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz,” the Guards said in a statement on their official Sepah News website. Neither vessel was named nor was the precise location disclosed.
The Guards later said in a statement carried by state TV that a third oil tanker “exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz.”
The statement added that the tanker, “carrying over 2 million barrels of crude oil, had deactivated all of its radar and navigation systems.”
The IRGC said the tankers tried to use what Iran unilaterally designates an unauthorized route through the strait’s southern section, near the Omani coast.
Tehran has no recognised authority under international maritime law to restrict or authorise passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which is subject to the right of transit passage under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported on Tuesday that it had received an account of “an incident between an oil tanker and military forces” on Monday, some 121 nautical miles east of the Omani city of Duqm. UKMTO reported no damage or casualties and did not identify the vessel.
The IRGC also claimed that their air defense system had shot down a US MQ-9 drone over the strait on Monday night. A US official, speaking to US media outlets, dismissed the claim as untrue.
On Tuesday, Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said the country is using cheap weapons to attack expensive US equipment.
“Should the enemy commit any further errors, we will neutralize the impact of their expensive, advanced equipment using a wide array of low-cost yet effective equipment.”
Some Iranian domestic outlets, including the state-affiliated Fars agency, reported that a US airstrike hit a naval base in Konarak in Sistan and Baluchistan province on Monday, wounding two military personnel and targeting an air defense installation. Washington has not commented on the report.
IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mojabi threatened on Monday to target undersea internet cables in the Gulf and the strait, saying “new weapons will be unveiled” with the aim of, in his words, removing US military presence from the region.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran would retaliate against any US attack.
“In practice we have shown that we absolutely do not leave any blow unanswered,” he said in response to reports that Washington had urged Iran to hold back in the event of a strike on Kuh Kalang.
“A US attack on Kuh Kalang and Iran not responding is fantasy and empty talk,” Baghaei said.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian security source as saying uncertainty over decision-making authority in Washington was complicating negotiations, naming Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump administration negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as figures whose respective roles remained unclear to Iranian officials.
Attacks on vessels attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz have increased in recent days, as Washington seeks to escort more ships through the strait while Tehran seeks to maintain control over their passage.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation, said about 6,000 seafarers have been stranded in the waterway since the war began. He criticised shipowners for continuing to send crews into the area.
US media have previously reported that the Pentagon was deploying the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Middle East, adding approximately 10,000 sailors and Marines to the region by the end of November. Washington has not confirmed the deployment.
Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Both Tehran and Washington have implemented blockades in the strait, while Iran has repeatedly targeted cargo vessels using the southern section of the waterway.
Source: Saudi Gazette