Iran's Revolutionary Guards say three tankers caught fire in Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that three oil tankers were ablaze in the Hormuz strait on Sunday, according to The Times of Israel. The Guards described the vessels as "noncompliant" and said they had exploded and burned while using what Tehran calls an illegal channel through the waterway. The statement did not name the ships or say which countries they belonged to.

Separately, the British maritime agency UKMTO reported a tanker on fire in the strait off Khasab, Oman, and said its crew had been evacuated, The Times of Israel reported. The Israeli news outlet News.co.il reported, citing the British agency, that an oil tanker had been attacked in the strait, and said reports indicated the IRGC had fired a missile that hit the vessel and set it alight. That outlet said the condition of the crew was not clear.

What the Revolutionary Guards said

The IRGC is a branch of Iran's armed forces that answers to the country's supreme leader and operates its own naval units in the Gulf. In the statement carried by The Times of Israel, the Guards said that from the early hours of the morning, three tankers they called noncompliant had exploded and caught fire while sailing in the channel Iran considers unlawful.

The wording of the statement does not say who caused the explosions. It does not claim the Guards struck the ships, nor does it attribute the fires to anyone else. The Times of Israel noted that Iran regularly targets vessels that pass through the strait without its permission.

The British agency's account

UKMTO is a British maritime security body that collects and circulates reports of incidents affecting commercial shipping in the region. According to The Times of Israel, the agency said military authorities had told it the tanker was burning and that the crew had been taken off. That report placed the incident off Khasab, a town on Omani territory overlooking the strait, and dated it to the previous day rather than Sunday.

The Times of Israel also said UKMTO reported a second tanker being struck, though the available text of that report breaks off before giving details.

Why the Strait of Hormuz matters

The strait is a narrow passage linking the Gulf to the open sea, with Iran on its northern shore and Oman on its southern side. The Times of Israel described it as a route that once carried roughly one-fifth of the oil consumed worldwide.

According to the same report, Tehran has sharply limited shipping through the strait since the Iran war began in late February, demanding that vessels follow routes the Islamic Republic has approved. The United States has responded by imposing a naval blockade on Iranian ports and by helping tankers make the passage. Ships that use routes outside Iran's approved lanes are the ones the IRGC labels noncompliant.

Where the accounts differ

The reports do not line up neatly on several points:

• Number of ships: The IRGC spoke of three tankers on fire. UKMTO, as relayed by The Times of Israel, described one tanker fire and a separate strike on another vessel. News.co.il referred to a single tanker.
• Cause: The IRGC statement says the tankers exploded and burned without naming a cause. News.co.il said reports pointed to an IRGC missile strike.
• Timing: The IRGC placed the fires on Sunday morning. The UKMTO report cited by The Times of Israel described a fire the day before.
• Crew: UKMTO said the crew of the burning tanker was evacuated. News.co.il said the crew's condition was unclear.

It is not clear from the material whether the tanker in the UKMTO report is one of the three the IRGC described.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports names the tankers, their owners, their flags or their cargo. No casualty figures have been given. The claim that the IRGC fired a missile is attributed by News.co.il to unnamed reports and has not been confirmed in the IRGC statement or in the UKMTO account as reported. No response from the United States, Oman or the ships' operators has been reported.