UAE says two tankers hit by Iranian missiles in Hormuz Strait, killing crew member

According to the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence, two Emirati oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. One Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded, four of them seriously. The ministry said the attack occurred in the southern lane of the strait, within Omani territorial waters. Fires that broke out on both vessels have since been brought under control. The UAE condemned the incident as a “blatant attack” and “a serious violation and clear breach of international law” that threatens regional security and stability.

The incident comes amid a rapid escalation between the United States and Iran, with both sides trading strikes over several consecutive days. US Central Command said its forces completed a roughly five-hour wave of strikes against military targets in Iran on Monday, hitting sites including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa and Bandar Abbas. The strikes were ordered by President Donald Trump, who had earlier warned Iran would be hit “very hard.” It marked the third consecutive night of US strikes on Iran, while Tehran responded with attacks on US bases in the Gulf, including in Bahrain, where missile alert sirens sounded twice early Tuesday. No damage or casualties from that attack were immediately reported.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed an attack on two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz but described the episode differently than the UAE. According to the IRGC, the vessels were “offending supertankers” that were struck and disabled after ignoring warnings, switching off their navigation systems, and attempting to pass through what it called “a mined route.” The Guard accused the United States of inciting vessels to use an illegal route and warned that cooperation with the “aggressor enemy” would lead to further damage, delays in reopening the waterway, and a global energy crisis. Accounts of the incident diverge sharply over whether the tankers were behaving lawfully or had ignored explicit warnings.

Separately, a spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya military command, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, said Tehran would not allow the United States to “interfere” in the management of the Strait of Hormuz as hostilities with Washington resumed. He also warned Gulf states that any cooperation with the US would be considered “an act of war.” The statement coincided with a US announcement reinstating a blockade of Iranian shipping in the strait, after Iran had earlier said it intended to close the waterway altogether — a move that further clouded prospects for de-escalation and pushed oil prices higher.

Tuesday's strikes were not the first of their kind in recent days. On Sunday, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, and an Indian crew member remained missing as of Monday, with a search operation underway according to Cyprus's Deputy Ministry of Shipping. The repeated attacks in the strait — through which around a fifth of global crude oil and natural gas supplies once moved in peacetime — have significantly reduced shipping traffic. Reports indicate only six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, the lowest number in five weeks, reflecting growing caution among shipping companies.

Financial markets have responded to the escalating confrontation with sharp price movements. Even before the latest tanker attack, Brent crude prices had jumped 3.3 percent to reach $78.50 a barrel, as traders anticipated prolonged disruption to oil transport through Hormuz. Analysts note that the strait remains one of the most critical chokepoints in global energy trade, meaning any disruption to shipping there has immediate ripple effects on world markets.

It remains unclear how the international community will respond to the latest attack on the Emirati tankers, or whether further retaliatory measures will follow between the parties involved. The precise circumstances of the strike also remain unresolved — whether the tankers had indeed been warned about a mined route, as Iran claims, or whether, as the UAE maintains, this was an unprovoked attack on civilian shipping within Omani waters. India, whose national was among those killed, has not yet issued an extensive statement on the incident, though diplomatic responses may be expected given the repeated toll on Indian seafarers in the region.

The events of recent days point to an emerging pattern of reciprocal strikes between the United States and Iran that is increasingly drawing in Gulf states and international shipping. With Washington's announced blockade and Iran's warnings to Gulf nations against cooperating with US forces, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz appears likely to intensify further in the coming days, with potentially significant consequences for global energy trade and maritime safety in the region.