One Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded on Tuesday when two Emirati oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence said, in the sharpest escalation yet of the Gulf war. ADNOC L&S, the shipping arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, confirmed that the very large crude carriers Mombasa B and Al Bahyah were hit while transiting the strait and had sustained significant damage.
The UAE defense ministry said the tankers were targeted in the southern lane of the strait while inside Omani territorial waters, with the fatality reported aboard the Mombasa. Four of the eight wounded were seriously injured. Fires broke out on both vessels and were later brought under control. Abu Dhabi condemned what it called a blatant attack and said it retained the full right to respond.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said two offending supertankers had been hit and disabled after ignoring warnings, switching off navigation systems and attempting to pass through what it described as a mined route. The IRGC did not name the vessels or confirm they were the same tankers cited by Abu Dhabi. Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said another tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile roughly 40 nautical miles northeast of Oman's Qalhat, with the master reporting damage to the starboard engine room and all crew safe.
ADNOC has been among the most active participants in a U.S. military led operation to move Gulf crude out to international buyers through ship to ship transfers beyond the strait, and U.S. Central Command said on July 12 it had facilitated the transit of more than 800 vessels and over 400 million barrels of crude in the previous two months. The attacks throw fresh doubt on an interim U.S. and Iranian agreement signed last month to reopen the waterway. Before the war began in February, about a fifth of the world's oil and gas traffic passed through Hormuz every day, worth at least 1.2 billion dollars.