Three tankers hit in latest attacks in the Strait of Hormuz

Three tankers were struck by projectiles on Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, officials said, in the latest attacks targeting vessels moving through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

The new assaults threatened to choke off the flow of traffic in the strait just as countries hoped to restore normal shipping practices and ease the global economic strain of the war between the US and Iran.

One of the tankers was traveling off the coast of Oman and caught fire, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre.

Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault.

Two other tankers were also hit, including one that was struck by a drone.

It was not immediately clear where they were at the time of the attacks.

Both of those ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, the maritime agency said.

At least one of the vessels continued on its way.

Tehran, which has repeatedly declared that only its approved route through the strait is safe, is suspected of attacking other ships that have used another route close to the Omani shore.

The US is eager to press ahead with negotiations with Iran aimed at fully reopening the strait, rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme and reaching a permanent end to the war which launched on February 28.

Previous attacks in the strait have sparked retaliatory strikes by the US.

Iran then attacked Gulf Arab states.

In peacetime, a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the channel.

Meanwhile, talks between Iran and the US appeared to be on hold until after the burial of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of the war.

Mourners at his funeral have called for the death of US President Donald Trump.

Authorities flew Mr Khamenei’s body to the Shiite seminary city of Qom, where mourners honoured him on Tuesday.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the first tanker to be struck was hit near Limah, Oman, in the strait.

The UKMTO said the projectile hit the port side of the vessel as it tried to travel south out of the strait toward the Gulf of Oman.

The agency said there were no environmental effects from the strike and that authorities were investigating.

Iranian state TV, quoting anonymous sources, implied that Tehran carried out the assault on a tanker it said was carrying natural gas from Qatar.

However, there was no official claim from the Islamic Republic for the attack.

Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said targeting the Qatari tanker, Al Rekayyat, in the strait was an “unacceptable attack” on international navigation and global energy security.

He called it a “serious and explicit violation” of international law.

In a post on X, he said Qatar holds Iran “fully legally responsible” for the attack.

Iran’s joint military command warned last Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the strait must use its approved routes.

It also said that interference by US forces in the strait “will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction”.

But the Joint Maritime Information Centre, a multinational body overseen by the US Navy, told shippers on Monday that the route around Oman “has been expanded and remains available for all traffic”.

Ships going to the north on the Iranian route must register with Tehran.

Those going south work with Oman and the US.

Speaking Monday at the White House, Mr Trump warned Iran that it would need to “make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job”.

“I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Mr Trump said.

“We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply.”

Iran and the US agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days.

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But Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, which would upend decades of practice in the waterway.

The US and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait.

The effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore earlier sparked attacks across the Middle East

The data firm Kpler reported that over last weekend at least 108 ships crossed through the strait using various routes.

Iranian state television early on Tuesday aired live images from a helicopter of hundreds of thousands of people walking toward Jamkaran Mosque, just south of Qom, for a funeral service for Mr Khamenei.

Shiites believe the mosque once hosted the Muhammad al-Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite imam, who disappeared in the 9th century and will one day reappear to bring justice to the world.

Images of Mr Khamenei and his son, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, were displayed on banners and posters held by mourners.

Mojtaba Khamenei has yet to make an appearance in the funeral ceremonies, which are unfolding over several days.

He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.

At the height of the war, before an April ceasefire, Israel targeted top Iranian leaders, in at least one case likely using their public appearances to fix their position.

It has also threatened to kill the younger Khamenei.

Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which began on Saturday and will end on Thursday as Mr Khamenei is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.

Mr Khamenei was 86.