Iran says supertanker carrying oil sank in Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that two oil tankers taking an unauthorized route in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz hit mines. According to the Guards, one of them, a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of oil, sank after an explosion and fire in the southern waters of the Persian Gulf.

The report could not initially be independently confirmed. However, on Sunday the British maritime agency UKMTO published a message from Indian maritime authorities about an attack on an oil tanker that had been sailing east through the Persian Gulf before entering the Strait of Hormuz. According to UKMTO, all crew members have been found and are safe, while the extent of the damage and the environmental consequences are not yet known. The agency says the report may concern this very supertanker.

The war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran began on Feb. 28 with joint air strikes and has now lasted more than eight months. U.S. President Donald Trump initially claimed that the aim was to overthrow the Iranian regime and that the conflict would last only a few weeks. In response, Iran began attacking, among other targets, ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which has noticeably pushed up oil prices: oil and gas leave the region for the global market through this strait.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz