An unidentified projectile hit the Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride inside the Strait of Hormuz on 13 October. It sank the next day, and all 21 crew got off, CNBC reported1. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN shipping agency, counts it as the third merchant ship sunk in the war.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said a mine sank it. A maritime security firm told CNBC there was no independent evidence of that2. Tehran called the tanker El Gaia a mine casualty last month while CENTCOM (US Central Command) said a missile hit it.
The sinking capped two weeks of attacks. IMO data showed 11 tankers attacked in the week to 4 October3. UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations, the Royal Navy's merchant-shipping desk) then warned of 12 attacks on ships from 5 to 11 October, Iran International counted4. Half a dozen ships were reported hit on 11 October alone. The four tankers struck in late September now look like the start of a run.
On 11 October a drone struck the Nicaragua-flagged tanker Petro Dolphin, carrying 11 Indian seafarers, at Sohar anchorage in Oman; the Valthera was hit the same day. India's Ministry of External Affairs says National Security Adviser Ajit Doval raised seafarer safety with Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, on 12 October5. An Indian crewman died aboard the bulk carrier Cape Dao in September.
On 17 October the IRGC Navy, the Guards' own fleet, said two "law-breaking" supertankers had hit mines, state-affiliated Mehr News Agency reported6. One was carrying over 2 million barrels. It named neither ship, and nothing independent confirms the claim. Mines, if they exist, threaten every hull in the strait, including ships Tehran would call lawful.
