Two sailors remain missing and 23 others have been rescued after an oil tanker was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, Oman's Maritime Security Centre confirmed on Tuesday. The Panama-flagged El Gaia caught fire in its engine room following an attack 1.3 nautical miles north of the Musandam peninsula — the narrow finger of Omani territory that juts into the strait — and is now being towed to an Omani port.
The incident has produced sharply conflicting accounts. Iran's Revolutionary Guards stated that the vessel struck a naval mine while travelling through what they described as a restricted and unsafe southern route through the strait. The United States military flatly rejected that version of events, saying the tanker had been struck by an Iranian missile the previous month and hit again by a drone over the weekend while anchored in Omani waters. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre separately confirmed receiving a report of a vessel struck by an unknown projectile in the early hours of Sunday. Oman, for its part, has not attributed blame to any party.
The El Gaia was reportedly among 77 vessels that Iran had listed as having violated its self-declared transit protocols for the strait, with Tehran warning that such ships could face fines, detention, or seizure. Iran has insisted it retains a measure of control over the waterway and has specifically targeted vessels using the southern route through Omani waters — an alternative to the northern route along the Iranian coast that Tehran considers the only sanctioned passage.
The attack is part of a broader pattern of maritime violence since the start of armed conflict between the United States and Iran in late February. The International Maritime Organization says at least 22 seafarers have been killed in 79 confirmed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and wider Middle East since then. Earlier this month, two Filipino sailors were killed aboard the Saudi-owned supertanker Sidr in a similar incident; Iran again claimed a mine strike, while Saudi authorities and maritime security firms attributed the attack to Iranian projectiles. Separately on Tuesday, Iran's Fars news agency reported that "enemy drones" struck two fishing boats near the Iranian port of Kargan, with several fishermen missing — a claim that US Central Command appeared to confirm, saying its forces had destroyed two Iranian small boats attempting to seize a US unmanned surface vessel.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies normally pass, has been effectively closed to normal commercial traffic since the conflict began. A preliminary ceasefire and deal to reopen the waterway reached in June collapsed within weeks after Iranian attacks on shipping resumed and the US reinstated its naval blockade of Iranian ports. The dispute over navigational authority in the strait — each side claiming it controls safe passage — has become a central flashpoint of the wider conflict, with serious consequences for global energy markets.