Iran's Guards say oil supertanker sinks in Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil sank in the Strait of Hormuz after striking a naval mine, an announcement with no independent confirmation that, if true, would be one of the largest vessel losses in the waterway since Tehran began restricting traffic there.

The Guards said two oil tankers travelling on what it called an unauthorised route in the southern part of the strait hit mines and caught fire. "One of these vessels - a super tanker carrying over two million barrels of crude oil - sank in the southern waters of the Persian Gulf," the statement said, according to state television. It gave neither the names nor the flags of the ships.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, a British naval monitoring body, said on Sunday it was aware of a report by Indian shipping authorities of an attack on a tanker in the Gulf, but it was unclear whether that was the same incident the Guards had announced. UKMTO said the crew were safe and that the damage and environmental impact were unknown.

The strait normally carries about one-fifth of the world's oil and has been at the centre of the Middle East war since it broke out in late February. Tehran has since heavily restricted traffic through the waterway, insisting vessels use routes the Islamic republic authorises, and has regularly targeted ships that transit without that authorisation. The United States has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and has helped tankers travel the strait.

US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, said last month that it had helped Gulf countries export 1.5 billion barrels of oil through Hormuz since the summer. The American military recently claimed to have cleared all mines from the main routes through the waterway.

The Guards' announcement follows a series of similar statements in recent weeks that ships had caught fire in the strait, often with the claim that they had struck mines. On November 13, Iranian state media broadcast video that the Guards said showed a ship carrying liquefied gas after it hit a mine in the south of the strait.

The Guards placed the sinking in the southern waters of the Persian Gulf, while describing the strikes as having happened in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz, the channel between Iran and the Arabian peninsula that opens into the Gulf of Oman.