CENTCOM Disputes Iranian Mine Claims as Two More Tankers Are Hit
The IRGC says 30 vessels have been turned back since 22 August; transits have fallen to five a day
Two more tankers have been struck in the Strait of Hormuz and the volume of traffic through the waterway has collapsed to about five ships a day, as Tehran and Washington put out flatly contradictory accounts of what is stopping vessels there.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated on Monday 31 August that a supertanker using what it called the southern route had been brought to a halt after striking two sea mines, causing a large fire. It gave no name, flag or cargo for the vessel, and warned that other ships attempting to violate its security rules would face the same outcome. The IRGC maintains that following Iranian regulations for transiting the strait is mandatory.
US Central Command issued a further fact-check statement rejecting that version, describing it as another IRGC attempt to intimidate regional commercial shipping through disinformation. CENTCOM has not denied that vessels are being struck; it denies that mines are doing it. It declared the strait completely demined last week, and said it had struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island overnight before they could deploy mines.
The sequence behind the dispute began on Sunday, when UK Maritime Trade Operations passed on a delayed report of a tanker hit by an unknown projectile while inbound overnight on Friday into Saturday. Martin Kelly of EOS Group and TankerTrackers.com both identified the vessel as the Kuwaiti-flagged product tanker Burgan, of 46,330 dwt, the second Kuwaiti ship struck inside 48 hours. Kelly also described Iranian small boats using a searchlight to identify tankers attempting the Omani side of the strait.
Late on Monday, UKMTO was informed of a second incident: an outbound tanker hit by three projectiles 17 nautical miles east of Khasab, Oman. That vessel is being identified as the Saudi operator Bahri's Sidr, of 300,759 dwt.
The IRGC puts the campaign in numbers of its own, stating that 30 vessels have been prevented from transiting since 22 August, while more than 1,500 oil tankers and 1,700 other commercial vessels have made the passage during 2026 by notifying Iranian authorities and paying a transit fee. Separately, the Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Department said it had stopped a sugar-laden bulk carrier for discharging a mixture of oil, bilge water and sludge into the strait.
The earlier US strikes on Larak followed attacks on at least ten vessels, and were answered by Iranian missile fire towards American bases in Kuwait and Jordan. The commercial effect is now visible in the traffic figures: data from Kpler puts weekend transits at roughly five ships a day, mostly smaller gas carriers, against 14 on the Friday including large crude carriers. The earlier phase of this exchange had already pushed underwriters to reprice the route.
