An oil tanker caught fire after striking a mine in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Earlier today, the IRGC announced that two tankers were still ablaze after hitting mines while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz via “unauthorised” routes.

Iran maintains that it controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the hydrocarbons exported worldwide passed before the outbreak of the war in the Middle East on 28 February, when US-Israeli air strikes were launched against the Islamic Republic.

Since then, Iran has frequently targeted vessels attempting to pass through the strait without its authorisation, while the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

File photograph