A crude oil supertanker caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, October 11, 2026, after being struck in what Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims was a naval mine blast — the latest attack in a week of escalating strikes on commercial shipping through the world's most important oil chokepoint. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported the vessel was hit on its port side by an unknown projectile, with all crew reported safe and damage still being assessed.
What happened on Sunday
UKMTO said the unidentified supertanker suffered the strike on Sunday while transiting the strait, sparking a fire aboard the vessel. The agency did not identify the ship or its flag state, and said the environmental impact was unknown. Reporting from the New York Post, Al Jazeera and IANS confirmed the crew survived, with no deaths reported.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy offered a sharply different account: it said the tanker struck one of its naval mines, triggering a massive engine-room explosion and fire. According to the IRGC, the crude-laden vessel had switched off its navigation and GPS systems and was using an "unauthorized" route through the strait. The IRGC released video purporting to show the tanker ablaze and warned that any vessel transiting the strait with its navigation systems off "will be identified as hostile and dealt with firmly and decisively." It described this as the third supertanker to strike a naval mine on an "unauthorized" route since Saturday.
US strike on another vessel the same day
Hours earlier, US Central Command confirmed that a US fighter jet struck the stern of the Panama-flagged M/V Ocean Molica — also reported as the "Arika Sun" — with a precision munition in the Gulf of Oman, fully disabling its propulsion. CENTCOM said the crew was not harmed and that the ship had docked at an Iranian port and was attempting to run the US naval blockade against Iranian ports. The command said the US has now disabled four ships and turned around 135 since renewing the blockade three months ago.
Separate rescue reports added to the confusion: the UAE National Guard answered a distress call and evacuated 22 crew members — all Indian nationals — from a burning tanker, and the Indian Consulate in Dubai confirmed 22 Indian crew were rescued from the tanker MT Gem No. 2 off Ras Al Khaimah on Sunday. Reports have not confirmed whether these accounts describe the same vessel, so they should be treated as separate until verified.
A week of escalating attacks
The weekend attacks cap the most violent stretch for commercial shipping in the strait this year. The UN's International Maritime Organization counted at least 11 tankers attacked in the week ending October 4 — the most strikes on commercial vessels there since the US–Israel war with Iran began on February 28 — with roughly 10 more strikes since, according to shipping monitors. Crude prices have climbed above $100 a barrel as the risk premium builds.
Other weekend incidents show the pattern spreading: on Friday the IRGC said it hit the LPG carrier NV Sunshine on what it called the strait's "illegal" southern route; around 19:20 UTC on Saturday a tanker was hit by an unknown projectile north of the Musandam Peninsula with the crew unharmed; and on Friday another vessel was struck by a projectile off Sharjah.
What happens next
The conflicting accounts — a mine strike per Iran, projectile attacks per UKMTO — leave the weekend's escalation open to interpretation, but the direction is unmistakable: both the United States and Iran are now openly striking shipping near the strait, and Tehran is explicitly threatening vessels that sail dark. With crude above $100 and the blockade tightening, the next tanker through the strait will sail with the world's attention on it.
Watch: Kanal13's report on the burning supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz, including the IRGC's claim that the vessel struck a naval mine — the third such claim since Saturday.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: New York Post, Press TV, Al Jazeera, IANS