Middle East & North Africa
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claim four ships hit in the Gulf and three more struck mines, warning US bases
Iran’s IRGC Navy says four ships were hit and set ablaze in the northern Gulf and three more hit mines west of Hormuz, warning the US that bases could be next. The claims are unverified; maritime monitors have found no documentation for earlier similar reports.
The Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Thursday, October 22, that four ships taking part in what it called “illegal oil transhipments” in the northern Persian Gulf were hit simultaneously and caught fire on Wednesday, after being tracked by its forces. Three more ships, it said, struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Middle East Eye and Reuters.
In the same statement the IRGC Navy accuses the United States of increasing naval incidents “day by day” by encouraging ships to use what it calls an illegally mined passage. “The aggressive American military must know that if this trend continues, the scope of the confrontation will extend to the aggressive bases of the region. This is a serious warning,” it said.
Claims not independently confirmed
These are Iranian claims, and none has been confirmed by independent sources. Since July the Guards have repeatedly announced that unnamed tankers exploded on mines while using routes Tehran has not approved. The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) wrote in its October 18 briefing that there was “no documentation” for the claim that two supertankers hit mines on October 17, and CENTCOM said in August that no ship had struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.
The clearest contradiction concerns the Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride, which sank after an attack on October 13. Iran spoke of a mine; JMIC recorded a strike by an unknown projectile, and CENTCOM attributed it to an IRGC projectile. All 21 crew members were evacuated safely.
The statement came hours after explosions at the port of Sirik on Iran’s southern coast. Israel’s N12, citing Iranian media, reported that the US military struck an anti-ship missile launcher there, as The Jerusalem Post noted. Washington has not confirmed it. In recent days the Guards also claimed a strike on a tanker off Oman and said they shot down a US MQ-9 over the Strait.
