Tanker hit off Oman: Persian press reports differ on the scale of the attack

The UK Maritime Trade Operations center (UKMTO) said it had received a report that a tanker carrying crude oil was struck by an "unknown projectile" about 4 nautical miles east of the Omani coast. According to ISNA, the projectile hit the ship's port side.

The state news agency IRNA ran the same report on Saturday morning in more cautious language, under the headline "A maritime incident near Oman." The agency wrote only that UKMTO had "received a report of an incident 4 nautical miles east of Oman." It did not use the words attack, hit or damage. No information has yet been released on the ship's name, flag or any casualties.

How the Persian press covered it

The hardline Kayhan ran the headline "Three UAE tankers targeted in the Strait of Hormuz" the same evening. The newspaper relies on a statement from a body called the "Persian Gulf Strait Authority" (PGSA). According to the statement, numerous tankers have been hit in the strait "in recent days," and the last three were owned or chartered by the United Arab Emirates. Kayhan quotes the PGSA as saying that the tankers AL RUWAIS, SINBAD and MERSIN PROSPERITY had passed through the strait several times in the past two months and were on the body's "non-compliance list."

It is not clear from these sources whether the single incident reported by UKMTO and the three tankers cited by Kayhan are the same events. The number and identities of the ships have not been independently confirmed.

Context

UKMTO is a center affiliated with the British Royal Navy. It records incidents involving commercial ships in the Gulf and the Red Sea and issues warnings to mariners. Its notices are usually the first and most cautious record of an incident. The perpetrator of an attack is often not identified in these initial records.

Commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been seriously disrupted since the Iran war began. Before the war, the strait was a chokepoint for a significant share of the world's seaborne oil. The "non-compliance list" cited by Kayhan appears to be linked to rules the Iranian side has set for transit through the strait. The source does not explain the list's legal status.