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IRGC Navy Says Third Oil Tanker Catches Fire After Striking Mine in Strait of Hormuz

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IRGC Navy: third supertanker struck by mine in Strait of Hormuz, fire on board. Vessel attempted exit with navigation off; IRGC warns against unauthorized routes.

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IRGC Navy Says Third Oil Tanker Catches Fire After Striking Mine in Strait of Hormuz
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Tanker burns in Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy reported that a law breaking oil tanker caught fire and sustained damages while attempting to illegally cross the Strait of Hormuz, after the ship turned off its navigation systems and tried to pass through a restricted area. The IRGC Navy said it had full control over all enemy actions and kept vessel passage under permanent and real time surveillance, and it told vessels to refrain from turning off electronic equipment and to coordinate with the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran for safe passage. The IRGC Navy also warned that any cooperation by commercial vessels and oil tankers with the “terrorist US forces” in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would face a decisive response, after it said a third crude oil supertanker was struck and engulfed in flames in the morning.

The IRGC Navy described the tanker as the third to be hit in two days and said it was struck while attempting to leave the strait despite warnings from the elite force. Iran’s IRGC Navy further said that a violating crude oil supertanker struck a naval mine in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, triggering an explosion and a fire in its engine room.

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Image: 617 News
Reporting for this sectionMehr News Agencyخبرگزاری بین المللی قدس

New policy and warnings

Iran’s IRGC Navy announced a new approach in the Strait of Hormuz, saying that from now on dealing with violator vessels would not be limited to the Strait of Hormuz and that any vessel passing through via an unauthorized route would be pursued across the entire area and its punishment would be definitive. Iran’s IRGC Navy also said that all ships in the Strait of Hormuz area that switch off their identification systems would be identified as hostile and dealt with severely, and it described the policy as part of a wider pattern of strikes and increased military movements. The IRGC Navy renewed its warning that vessels switching off their navigation systems while passing through the waterway would be classified as "hostile vessels," after it said an oil tanker struck a mine and triggered an explosion in its engine room.

The IRGC Navy said the supertanker was attempting to transit the strategic waterway with its navigation system switched off, and it added that the oil tanker was the third vessel to strike naval mines along the prohibited route in the Strait of Hormuz since Saturday. The IRGC Navy said the incidents followed its earlier claim that it struck a giant liquefied petroleum gas carrier on October 9 in the Strait of Hormuz while attempting to pass through an "illegal route" south of the strategic waterway.

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Image: A News
Reporting for this sectionنورنیوزA News

Blockade, security, and fallout

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ismail Bagaei said security will not return to the Strait of Hormuz until the United States ends the war and the blockade of Iranian ports, and he tied the lack of security to the United States generating insecurity through naval blockade and the economic war. Bagaei said Tehran was not satisfied with the current situation and denied that navigation and the transport of oil through Hormuz had returned to normal, while he said the United States could keep claiming the strait was no longer relevant. Bagaei also said the United States would not need to turn to Russia to overcome difficulties with fuel if the problems had been resolved, and he called that request for help proof that problems persist.

The IRGC Navy said it would keep vessel passage under permanent and real time surveillance and warned that any cooperation with US forces would face a decisive response, as it described repeated incidents involving tankers and mines. The IRGC Navy said commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had fallen sharply, with vessel movements dropping to single digits, and it said Tehran would not reopen the waterway until the United States meets its demands and takes steps to restore Iran's trust.

Reporting for this sectionLibertad Digitalخبرگزاری بین المللی قدس