Iran Says Tanker Explodes on Mines in Blocked Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps said on Monday that a super oil tanker exploded after striking naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement carried on its official news outlet.

The vessel had been attempting to cross the strait through a route south of the waterway that the IRGC described as forbidden. The statement said warnings about the dangers of that route had been issued previously.

In the same statement, the IRGC Navy said the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked and remains under what it called Iran's smart control.

Passage through the strategic waterway has been restricted since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. U.S. forces have separately imposed a naval blockade targeting vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports.

The disruption is visible in ship-tracking data. The daily number of vessels transiting the strait fell to single digits over the weekend, below the recent 10-day average of 14 vessels per day. Four vessels, including a gas carrier, exited the strait over the weekend, while 10 cargo ships entered it.

Those figures do not include vessels that pass through the strait with their Automatic Identification System switched off.

The Strait of Hormuz handles roughly 20 percent of the world's seaborne oil flows, along with significant shipments of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers. Before the U.S.-Israeli strikes, around 125 large commercial vessels passed through the strait every day, among them oil tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and container ships.