November 5, 2026
The military escalation continues in the Gulf region and the Strait of Hormuz, recording serious field developments that included the targeting of a marine tanker off the coast of Qatar, coinciding with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s announcement of fires in two oil tankers and a naval tug inside the Strait, in light of the repercussions of the ongoing confrontation between Tehran and Washington on international shipping traffic.
In this context, the British Maritime Trade Operations Authority (UKMTO) announced on Thursday that it had received a report stating that a tanker had been attacked by unknown projectiles 50 nautical miles north of the Qatari North region. The authority explained, via the “X” platform, that the toll of damage or the health condition of the ship’s crew members has not yet become clear, nor has any additional details been provided about the party responsible for the attack or the nature of the targeting.
For its part, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced, also on Thursday, that two separate incidents had occurred that led to the outbreak of fires in two oil tankers and a naval tug while crossing the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Revolutionary Guard’s statement, the first accident occurred on Wednesday evening as a result of a huge oil tanker colliding with a sea mine while trying to cross what it described as the “illegal passage” south of the strait, which led to it stopping movement.
The statement added that the second accident involved another giant oil tanker that stopped moving after a massive fire broke out in it as it exited the same corridor east of the strait, indicating that the fire extended to affect a marine tug that approached the place to participate in firefighting work.
These incidents come at a time when navigation in the Strait of Hormuz has witnessed almost complete paralysis since the outbreak of the military confrontation between Tehran and Washington on February 28, amid repeated Iranian threats and targeting of commercial ships passing through the Strait by Iranian forces and sea mines.
Tehran had set seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies passed before the outbreak of war. In contrast, the United States imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, coinciding with the escalation of economic pressures and the expansion of the scope of sanctions against Iran and its allied parties, while the full repercussions and human and material damage of the recent incidents remain under monitoring.
