Iran says four oil-carrying ships hit in Persian Gulf

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had carried out further military operations against maritime traffic and commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that an official statement issued by the IRGC Navy said four foreign cargo ships travelling on routes not authorized by Iran were found conducting illegal oil transfers in the Persian Gulf and were hit simultaneously in maritime strikes.

The statement also said that three commercial ships struck naval mines late yesterday in a sea corridor in the western part of the Strait of Hormuz. The blasts caused major fires on the vessels and brought traffic to a complete halt.

Iran blamed the United States for the rise in maritime incidents and the shipping crisis in the Persian Gulf. The IRGC command accused Washington of encouraging foreign commercial vessels and oil tankers to use dangerous, mined passages.

IRGC leaders issued a direct warning to the US administration, saying that if Washington continued such actions, Tehran’s response would not be limited to maritime areas.

The statement said that, should the escalation intensify, US military bases and strategic infrastructure throughout the Middle East would also be among the targets of retaliatory strikes.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively paralyzed, while attacks on tankers have sharply disrupted the transit of oil and natural gas transported by sea to global markets, further deepening price increases in world fuel markets.