By Vaughn Cockayne (The Washington Times)
An oil tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile while traveling in the Strait of Hormuz, just hours after Iran said its forces struck a ship attempting to “illegally” pass through the waterway, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations agency reported Friday.
UKMTO’s report said the strike sparked a fire on the vessel but that all crew members were safe. Authorities are still investigating the attack’s environmental impact and who the perpetrator is.
UKMTO also did not provide the name, flag or origin of the tanker that was hit.
It also remains unclear where exactly in the strait the tanker was struck. The U.S. military has been offering some commercial tankers guidance through the waterway in recent weeks, but most have moved through Omani-controlled waters and at night.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Thursday that it had struck a Togo-flagged vessel in regional waters after it attempted to move through the Strait of Hormuz without permission from Iranian authorities.
“Illegal passage through the Strait of Hormuz will achieve nothing other than the destruction of the offending vessel,” the IRGC Navy said in a statement carried by state media.
The IRGC added the ship had attempted to traverse the waterway after being “incited and deceived” by the U.S. military.
The attack comes after an unidentified skiff chased off a tanker vessel attempting to travel through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait near Yemen.
UKMTO’s notice of the incident says a skiff “pursued and attempted to intercept” a vessel east of the city of Aden, Yemen, which sits on the country’s southwestern coast. Authorities are reportedly investigating, but UKMTO was unable to identify the skiff’s origin and did not confirm whether the tanker suffered any damage.
UKMTO did not say whether Iran-backed Houthi rebels were responsible for the incident, but the group recently acquired large swaths of territory on Yemen’s western coast, making it easier to perform interceptions of Saudi-linked commercial tankers.
This article was made available to WMAL via The Washington Times.
