BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 3. Three oil tankers have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz while using routes deemed illegal since last night, according to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Since the mentioned oil tankers had disabled their tracking and GPS systems, explosions and fires occurred after they struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC noted that the regulations established by Iran for the Strait of Hormuz have been repeatedly communicated to all vessels via radio, asserting that non-compliance and support for the U.S. military led to the incidents.
The event marks a fresh escalation in U.S.-Iran hostilities that flared on July 8, when U.S. forces launched airstrikes against targets in Iran, the first since a bilateral memorandum was signed, in retaliation for an earlier attack on a commercial vessel in the strait. Following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement terminating the ceasefire, Tehran retaliated with strikes on U.S. facilities across Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Omani territory. The ongoing conflict has effectively brought commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to a standstill.
