The Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that two oil tankers—one of them a supertanker—collided with a sea mine in the past hours in the Strait of Hormuz and exploded. According to a public relations statement from the IRGC, the supertanker caught fire after a severe explosion, and both ships stopped moving.

The IRGC called the two oil tankers “offenders” and attributed passage through the Strait of Hormuz’s “unauthorized route” to these ships.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on the 6th of Aban in a message on the X network that reports by “media outlets under the control of the Islamic Republic” about commercial vessels hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz were incorrect.

CENTCOM stated that it has cleared all major and international routes in the strait of mines and that these routes have remained clear, adding, “Thousands of commercial ships have transited these lanes safely.”

The documented method in the most recent attack was sticky mines, not sea mines. On the 8th of Aban, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Authority announced that a small boat attached two bombs to the hull of an oil tanker 25 miles northeast of the port of Duqm in Oman. The engine room caught fire, and the ship temporarily shut down.

Hashtags: ["VOA Persian"]