Iran Dials Up Pressure on Hormuz With Record Number of Weekly Strikes on Shipping

Iranian attacks on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have reached their highest level in months with the sinking of a cargo ship this week and two new reports Saturday of ships being damaged in or near the strategic waterway.The attacks appear to have reversed some of the recent gains made by American naval escorts through the strait, with the maritime intelligence firm Kpler reporting that about 12.6 million barrels of oil transited the waterway on October 13, down from about 15 million barrels per day at the end of September. Pre-war traffic through the strait averaged about 17 million barrels per day, according to Kpler.U.S. Central Command, in a social media post Thursday, rejected an Iranian claim to control the strait, saying “commercial vessels continue to transit despite unwarranted IRGC aggression.” However Reuters reported that the price of Brent crude oil touched $110 a barrel for the first time since May on Friday, largely because of concern over the increased volatility in the strait.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, which tracks attacks on shipping, says it has recorded 12 attacks in the past week, including six in a single day on October 11, marking the highest tally in any one week since the war with Iran began on February 28. The agency says the real tally may be higher because it “is struggling to accurately report true number of attacks with majority of vessels attacked refusing to report to UKMTO.”In the most recent strikes, still unreported to UKMTO or confirmed from other sources, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Saturday that two more oil tankers had caught fire after hitting naval mines in the strait. IRNA quoted the IRGC saying the ships had switched off their positioning and radar systems and attempted to use an “unauthorised” route through the strait.Earlier this week, a Singapore-registered container ship, the GFS Pride, caught fire and sank after an Iranian attack, prompting widely circulated photographs of its cargo containers floating near the coast of Oman as local residents in small boats sought to salvage some of the debris. All of its crew members were safely evacuated.Just one day later, a merchant ship, the Antigua and Barbuda-registered Cape Dao, sank as a result of damage incurred in a projectile strike on September 23. The two sinkings were only the second and third recorded since the start of the war.“The sinking of Singapore-flagged GFS PRIDE marks a dangerous escalation after weeks of near-daily attacks on commercial shipping,” a senior adviser for United Against Nuclear Iran, Charlie Brown, told CNN. His nonprofit group tracks and reports on Iranian sanctions violations.CENTCOM challenged Iran’s claim that the GFS Pride sank as the result of hitting a naval mine in the strait. “This is FALSE,” the command posted to X. “The civilian container ship M/V GFS Pride was hit by an IRGC projectile. The vessel sank while being towed to shore. Despite the attack, commercial ships continue to flow through the Strait of Hormuz (whose primary routes remain clear of mines), with more than 40 ships moving in the last 24 hours.”The CENTOM commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, maintained in a video message Friday that about 400 merchant vessels had passed through the strait over the previous seven days in spite of the stepped-up Iranian attacks. “Let me be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran, and it remains open for business,” he said.Many of those passages are being facilitated along the southern side of the strait close to Oman, where vessels are being directed by U.S. Navy warships, aircraft, and advanced drone networks while leaving their transponders switched off to avoid being detected by the IRGC. Those measures were estimated by Kpler to have restored the flow of non-Iranian oil through the strait to more than 80 percent of pre-war levels as of late September.Admiral Cooper also said the American blockade of Iranian oil exports had prevented Tehran from exporting at least $25 billion worth of crude oil in recent months. “As a point of emphasis, with the exception of the humanitarian assistance we’ve allowed in, Iran has no exports and no imports by sea,” he said.

Iran Dials Up Pressure on Hormuz With Record Number of Weekly Strikes on Shipping

Iran Dials Up Pressure on Hormuz With Record Number of Weekly Strikes on Shipping

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