Iran strikes tankers outside Hormuz, widening its operations

Iran's armed forces struck two commercial tankers outside the Strait of Hormuz this week within a 24-hour span. The attacks look like a deliberate widening of operations beyond the strait, and they come as Iranian officials issue fresh warnings to the United States.

Two incidents

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said several projectiles hit the oil and chemical tanker Acers, flagged in Antigua and Barbuda, on Wednesday. The vessel was 51 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal in Qatar, and casualties were reported. Maritime intelligence firm Vanguard said the ship was heading toward the Strait of Hormuz. It was the first attack in that area in over six months.

On Thursday, Vanguard reported a fire on a tanker about 40 kilometres off Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, identifying it as probably the Marshall Islands-flagged Dhalgout. UKMTO had not logged the incident, and the cause of the fire was not immediately clear. NASA's FIRMS fire-detection system confirmed the blaze. US military aircraft were over the area at the time, including two KC-46 tankers, a KC-135, a P-8A patrol plane and several helicopters.

Iran and IRGC-affiliated media did not officially claim either attack. IRGC-linked outlets did imply, however, that Tehran had extended operations against vessels violating Iranian rules in the Strait of Hormuz to waters beyond it.

Warnings to Washington

Roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments normally passes through the strait, but it has been effectively closed since the war began in late February, when Iran and the US imposed concurrent naval blockades.

Acting Defence Minister Majid Ebn ol-Reza wrote on X that the distance between the sides is set by Iran's missiles: yesterday the Gulf of Oman, today the Indian Ocean, tomorrow the Bay of Pigs. The last phrase appears to refer to the failed US-backed landing in Cuba in 1961. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had earlier warned that a new US or Israeli attack could see the war extended as far as the Indian Ocean. Iran's army spokesman said forces were ready for pre-emptive action if needed.

At a midterm campaign rally in Nebraska, US President Donald Trump defended going to war with Iran. In Texas on Wednesday night he said the US would protect its own cities.

Ebn ol-Reza became acting minister after Aziz Nasirzadeh was killed on 28 February, the first day of the war. President Masoud Pezeshkian has nominated Mehrdad Akhlaqi as the permanent replacement, and parliament is due to hold a confidence vote on 18 October.