IRGC Says Two Supertankers Exploded and Caught Fire in the Strait of Hormuz, Carrying Over 4 Million Barrels of Oil
TEHRAN — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said in a statement on November 12 that two supertankers suffered a violent explosion, were disabled and caught fire on the night of November 11 after ignoring repeated warnings from its Strait of Hormuz traffic control centre and transiting an unauthorised southern route through the strait. The two vessels were carrying more than four million barrels of oil combined, the statement said.
The IRGC Navy did not name the tankers, give their flags or report on their crews, and did not specify the cause of the explosion, attributing the incident to the vessels' 'blind trust' in the U.S. military. The IRGC Navy also said on Wednesday that a separate tanker had caught fire in the early hours of that day after striking a naval mine east of the strait. None of these claims had been independently verified as of publication, and international maritime agencies such as UK Maritime Trade Operations had not issued a notice on the two supertankers.
Since the war began in February, Iran has imposed strict controls on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, requiring prior authorisation and confining safe passage to a northern route it designates, while declaring southern routes mined and prohibited. Tankers have repeatedly struck mines, exploded or caught fire in the strait in recent weeks, and Iranian accounts have several times differed from those of international maritime agencies.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most important oil shipping channels, normally carrying about a fifth of global seaborne crude.
(Source: IRGC Navy)
Source: IRGC Navy
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：一艘油轮在公海航行（资料图）。CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: An oil tanker at sea (file photo). CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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