Iran says two tankers caught fire after hitting mines in Strait of Hormuz | Energy news
The ships, each carrying around two million barrels of crude oil, took an unauthorized route, the IRGC said.
Published on October 18, 2026
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two tankers, each carrying around two million barrels of crude oil, caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The first tanker hit a mine, triggering an explosion and a “severe fire”, the IRGC said on Saturday, while the second tanker hit a mine that engulfed it “in a massive fire”, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
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Information on the names of the ships or the origin of their cargo was not immediately available.
IRNA said the ships turned off their positioning and radar systems and attempted to use a route not authorized by Iran.
The IRGC also claimed that while one tanker attempted to cross the waterway “with US support,” the second vessel remained immobilized.
Iran took control of the Strait of Hormuz after the US-Israeli war against the country began in late February. Tehran has since demanded that all ships seek its authorization before transiting. Before the war, about a fifth of the world’s oil consumption moved by water.
This week, IRGC naval commander Rear Admiral Ali Azmaei warned that any ship that disables its navigation systems would be considered “hostile.”
The United States imposed its own naval counter-blockade on Iranian oil exports.
The Iranian military said earlier that two oil tankers caught fire on Thursday and Friday in Tehran’s “forbidden zone” in the Gulf of Oman.
Maritime observers also reported the collision of two oil tankers in Gulf waters off Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Last Sunday, six ships were attacked in or near the Strait of Hormuz, the most in a single day since the war began, according to security firm Vanguard, the International Maritime Organization and Britain’s shipping agency UKMTO.
Attacks around the waterway have increased in the past two weeks, with Iran saying it was stepping up its strikes in response to the U.S. blockade of its ports and tougher sanctions imposed last month.
Nearly 20.8 million barrels of oil passed through on October 8, but only 2.9 million on October 11, according to Kpler data.
These disruptions have driven up global energy prices and inflation.
US President Donald Trump has explicitly ruled out the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. “I would not use nuclear power,” he told the news site Newsmax on Thursday.
Trump said he also has no plans to send troops on the ground in Iran. “No, I don’t see it, I don’t see it,” he said, adding that he believed a deal to end the war would be reached after the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections.
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