Three tankers catch fire in Hormuz

DUBAI:

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said on Friday that three oil tankers had caught fire and exploded in the Strait of Hormuz, while attempting to use what it described as unauthorised routes, Iranian state media reported.

An IRGC Navy statement said one of the tankers, which was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil, had hit a mine.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the statement.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said it had received a report that a vessel was hit by an unknown projectile on its port side about 40 nautical miles (74 km) south of Iran's Lavan Island, causing a fire onboard. The crew were reported safe and there was no reported environmental impact, it said.

Lavan Island lies in the Gulf, off Iran's southern coast. It was not immediately clear whether the vessel cited by the agency was one of the three tankers referred to by the IRGC Navy.

Tensions have persisted in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which around one-fifth of global oil supplies pass, since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February.

State media said Iranian forces also downed and captured an MQM-170 US drone over Iran's Qeshm island near the Strait of Hormuz. There was no immediate reaction from the US military and Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Iran also said it had destroyed an unmanned US vessel in the eastern Strait of Hormuz.

But the US military's Central Command denied this and said in a statement on X: "All US military unmanned surface vessels in the Middle East are accounted for, including a squadron of advanced sea drones on patrol in the Strait of Hormuz."