An oil tanker caught fire on Tuesday after a projectile struck it near Limah, Oman, as it was moving south out of the Strait of Hormuz toward the Gulf of Oman. The UK Maritime Trade Operations said the hit landed on the port side of the vessel. No casualties or environmental damage were reported.
The fire immediately put one of the world’s most sensitive shipping lanes back in focus. The Strait of Hormuz carries a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas, and the tanker was hit on a day when even a brief disruption can rattle markets and maritime traffic far beyond the Gulf.
UK Maritime Trade Operations said authorities were investigating the incident. What struck the tanker remains unconfirmed, and who fired it has not been directly established. That gap matters because the competing accounts point in different directions: Iranian television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings, while two US officials told Axios anonymously that Iran’s military fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting the strait. One of those officials said a second vessel was also hit, and both ships suffered significant damage.
Hossein Royvaran offered a different explanation. He said the area near Oman is likely full of mines, and that it was possible the tanker had strayed into a zone where Iranian teams were carrying out mine-clearing operations. He added that ships may have moved into directions that threatened those teams. Tehran has repeatedly said only its approved route through the Strait of Hormuz is safe, and it is suspected of attacking other ships that have used another route close to the Omani shore.
The timing also keeps the episode tied to the wider war footing in the region. Talks between Iran and the United States on a permanent end to the war appear to be on hold until after the burial of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28. Authorities flew his body to Qom overnight, and mourners honoured him there on Tuesday. The tanker attack now sits beside that political moment, with investigators still trying to establish whether the ship was caught in a warning zone, a mine-clearing area or a missile strike.
