23JUN

Hormuz attacks sink three merchant ships

3 min read

11:42UTC

UKMTO logged at least 11 ships attacked around Hormuz in the week to 6 November, and three of them sank. Nobody has named the attackers or the wrecks.

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Key takeaway

Three merchant ships sank near Hormuz in one week, and no counter has named them.

At least 11 ships were attacked in and around Hormuz in the week to Friday 6 November, and three sank, according to UKMTO (United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations), the British naval office that takes merchant ships' security reports, Al Jazeera reported⁠¹. UKMTO named no attacker. Al Jazeera gave no figure for the crews.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN shipping agency, keeps its own count and does not use UKMTO's. It recorded 29 attacks from 1 to 22 October and logged the container ship GFS Pride, which a projectile hit in the strait on 13 October, as the war's third merchant sinking. None of the three new wrecks has a name yet, so neither counter has placed them in that sequence. A Western military intelligence agency puts strikes by projectiles on shipping at 88 since early July and says most go unreported⁠².

Transits that week ran at 325, about 65% below pre-war, on a lane where freight from The Gulf to Asia already cost more than $37 a barrel by mid-October.

Iran's own coast took fire too. Two projectiles hit Qeshm Island on the night of 6 November, the latest in weeks of strikes on its air defences and launchers that Al Jazeera attributes to US forces; Donald Trump called them "minor strikes", and CENTCOM (US Central Command) has not confirmed them. Iran's army said it shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper strike drone on 7 November, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed an older MQ-1 the day before. CENTCOM confirmed neither claim.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

the strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel off Iran's coast that tankers use to carry oil and gas out of The Gulf. UKMTO is a British naval office that collects reports from merchant ships about attacks. It counted at least 11 ships hit near the strait in the week to 6 November, and three of them sank. On the night of 6 November two projectiles struck Qeshm, an Iranian island in the strait that holds air defences. Al Jazeera says US forces carried out the strikes. Iran also said it shot down two American drones, the MQ-9 Reaper and the older MQ-1. The US military command for the region, CENTCOM, has not confirmed any of this.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Reporting lags make the strait opaque. UKMTO issued a "verified, time-late report" three days after a tanker was disabled on 23 October, so masters plan voyages on data that is already stale.

Ships keep sailing because Iran's permit system offers a paid route while the southern route carries mine and projectile risk. Owners that refuse the permit, or that the strait authority lists, take the exposed path.

Qeshm Island sits across the narrowest part of the strait and hosts the air defences and launchers that cover it, which makes it the obvious target for strikes meant to reduce Iran's reach over shipping.

Escalation

Rising. The weekly attack count of at least 11 runs above the IMO's October average of about 1.3 a day, and the strikes on Qeshm continued while the Doha channel was active.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Three sinkings in one week, once confirmed, would double the IMO's count of merchant ships sunk in the war.
Risk
Unconfirmed strikes and drone losses leave no agreed record either side can be held to, making any ceasefire in the strait harder to verify.

Source Landscape

This story draws on centre-left-leaning sources from Qatar

Qatar

Primary parallel: The Houthi campaign in the Red Sea sank its first merchant ship, the Rubymar, on 2 March 2024 after it drifted for two weeks, and the Tutor went down in June 2024. Those losses followed months of hits on ships the Houthis said were linked to their enemies, the same selective-enforcement claim the IRGC makes at Hormuz.

Counter-parallel: On 20 June 2019 Iran shot down a US RQ-4A Global Hawk over the strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon confirmed the loss the same day. This week's MQ-9 and MQ-1 claims have no such confirmation, which shows how far drone losses now go unacknowledged by either side.

Transits ran at about 46 a day in the week to 6 November, 170 outbound and 155 inbound, roughly two-thirds below pre-war levels. Each sinking removes a hull from a tight tanker market and raises war-risk premiums for the next voyage.

Three sinkings in one week matter more for insurers than the attack count. The IMO had counted only three merchant sinkings in the whole war by mid-October, with the GFS Pride as the third, so the week would double that tally once the ships are named.

Consensus view: The Joint Maritime Information Center rated the strait threat "severe" on 25 October and warned of "possible renewed mining activity". A Western military intelligence agency quoted by Al Jazeera counts 88 projectile strikes on shipping since early July and says most go unreported, which fits a campaign run below the threshold of attribution.

Counter-view: The IRGC Navy frames its hits as enforcement against "violating" ships using an "unauthorized" southern route, and on 22 October claimed four ships struck during ship-to-ship transfers. Tehran presents the attacks as policing its permit regime, not as acts of war.

Key tension: Whether the three sinkings came from mines laid in the channel, which Washington says it has cleared, or from projectiles fired at chosen targets, a distinction that decides who is liable and whether escorts can stop it.

First Reported In

Update #184 · Iran offers talks, blacklists 114 more ships

Al Jazeera· 8 Nov 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

GFS Pride sinks in the Strait of Hormuz

Three more merchant ships sank in the week to 6 November after the GFS Pride became the war's third merchant sinking.

Occurred 13 Oct 2026

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IRGC Navy says mines hit three tankers

Attacks on shipping around Hormuz continued after the IRGC Navy claimed three tankers hit mines on 29 October.

Occurred 29 Oct 2026

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This Event

Hormuz attacks sink three merchant ships

Ships are going down faster than the official tallies can name them, while traffic through the strait runs at about a third of its pre-war level.

Different Perspectives

Office for Budget Responsibility

The OBR's 28 October forecast assumed $82 oil for 2026 and 2027, from market prices for the ten working days to 19 August, and blamed dearer wholesale energy on the war without naming Iran. It expects CPI inflation close to 4% in early 2027 even at that price.

Hengaw, Kurdish rights group

Hengaw reported the 3 November hangings of Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi in Isfahan, saying Ebrahimi was tortured into confessing and that nine of 12 people sentenced to death in the case have now been hanged. Iran's judiciary holds that the defendants killed members of the security forces.

FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit

FINTRAC worked with the US Treasury on the 6 November designation of eight money services businesses in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Treasury says the businesses still operate, some under new names, so closing them falls to Ottawa.

Abdul Qadir al-Dakhil, Governor of Nineveh

Al-Dakhil cancelled three Mosul International Airport contracts on 7 November over alleged links to armed groups, after meeting Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Baghdad. He named no group or company, and said the contracts will go to international companies.

Kuwait

Kuwait condemned the Houthi missile fired towards the Madinah region on 5 November and restated its support for Saudi Arabia, the Qatar News Agency reported. Its state tanker company, Kuwait Oil Tankers Company, is among the Gulf state fleets on Iran's expanded Hormuz list.

Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary

Treasury designated an alleged Chandigarh false-flag network on 4 November and eight Canadian exchangers on 6 November, while State sanctioned alleged MANPADS intermediaries. None of the actions touches an oil buyer; they target the paper, cash and procurement around Iran's trade.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.