Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) gunboats fired on the Indian-flagged very large crude carrier Sanmar Herald and the tanker Jag Arnav in the strait of Hormuz on 18 April, after both vessels received prior radio clearance from Iranian authorities to transit1. No warning preceded the fire. Both ships reversed course back through the strait.
An intercepted bridge transmission captured one crew's response in a single radio line: "You gave me permission to go... you are firing now!"2. The IRGC is Iran's ideological parallel military force, commanding proxy networks, domestic security and Hormuz naval operations alongside the conventional armed forces; gunboat encounters with commercial shipping in the strait are its signature. the strait of Hormuz is the 33-kilometre maritime chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil passes.
The pattern repeats an earlier fire. On 17 April, Iran's joint military command declared Hormuz reopened for 24 hours, and the IRGC fired on an Indian-flagged vessel the same day after granting clearance. Iran reversed the opening on 18 April, declaring the strait "returned to its previous state under strict management and control", and the Sanmar Herald and Jag Arnav attacks followed inside hours.
For shipping insurers, the IRGC's grant-and-fire sequence prices Iranian radio clearance at zero protection value. Underwriters had been pricing a carve-out in which vessels carrying Iranian permission could transit safely; two incidents inside 24 hours, both on Indian hulls, both preceded by clearance, remove that assumption. The question that replaces it is whether any transit through Hormuz now carries insurable status while IRGC targeting decisions are made at gunboat level rather than by Tehran's foreign ministry.
