Iran's IRGC Navy says seven vessels hit, warns US of wider response

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Thursday that four vessels it accused of illegal oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were simultaneously hit and caught fire after being tracked by its forces on Wednesday.

The IRGC said three more vessels collided with mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, and warned the US military that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against its regional bases, according to reports from Reuters, the Times of Israel and Arab News.

All accounts attribute the claims to the IRGC Navy alone; no independent confirmation of the strikes or the mine collisions was reported. The characterisation of the four vessels as engaged in “illegal oil transfers” is the IRGC’s own framing.

The warning to Washington marks the latest escalation around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which much of the world’s seaborne oil passes, and follows a string of tanker incidents the IRGC has claimed or been blamed for in recent weeks.

Flip News presents the IRGC’s claims as claims; the strikes described have not been independently verified.