At least four tankers have caught fire after hitting mines while attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s armed forces said on Thursday (October 29, 2026), a day after the U.S. military said it had cleared key routes through the waterway.
“Over the past 24 hours, three violating oil tankers exploded and caught fire after striking mines while attempting to pass through the unauthorised southern route of the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement. The vessels had “switched off all their radar and navigation systems” and disregarded warnings from the IRGC navy, the statement said. “A tanker that was illegally operating in a restricted and dangerous area east of the Strait of Hormuz was damaged and caught fire after striking naval mines, rendering it unable to move,” the army said in a statement carried by State television.
The United States has in response imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers travel the strait. On Sunday (October 25, 2026), CENTCOM said it had helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil via Hormuz since the summer.
In their statement on Thursday (October 29, 2026), the Guards said “the IRGC Navy states that the unauthorised route through the Strait of Hormuz is mined, and that vessel owners and crews are responsible for transiting these routes and should not pay attention to CENTCOM’s delusions on social media”.
Earlier in the day, the British maritime agency UKMTO said it had received a report of a ship on fire in the strait but gave no details about the cause or any casualties. The IRGC also said it had captured a U.S. reconnaissance drone, in a separate statement.
