United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the Royal Navy's merchant-shipping desk, reported a tanker struck about 11 nautical miles west of Bukha in Oman early on Wednesday 21 October, with the fire out and the crew safe1. A day earlier it recorded a master's report of an unknown projectile, with no damage, 30 nautical miles south-east of Al Faw, Iraq. It named neither ship.
That is the independent record set against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which claims to have hit far more ships this week without naming one. The JMIC (Joint Maritime Information Center, a US-led naval reporting cell) said of the IRGC's 17 October mine claims that "there is no substantiation" to them2. CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told Fox News Digital that the "vast majority" of Iranian attacks had failed and that about 97% of ships seeking transit got through, a figure CENTCOM did not break down3.
One ship does have a name. An unknown projectile hit the Kuwait-flagged product tanker (one carrying refined fuel) Al Dasma in the strait, on 21 October local time by India's account and on 20 October by the International Maritime Organization's (IMO), its second attack on the IMO's list4. New Delhi says its Indian crew came through unhurt.
The counts of the wider campaign do not match. The IMO put confirmed maritime security incidents at 119, with 24 seafarers killed, by 22 October5; the JMIC counted 153 confirmed incidents since 1 March in its 18 October advisory6. Neither body explains the gap, so no single official tally of attacks on shipping exists. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said about 6,000 seafarers remain trapped, down from about 11,000 when Iran shut the evacuation corridor in June, and urged ships not to transit "until we have guarantees"7.
