US targets Iranian military infrastructure to stop attacks on vessels in Hormuz as sailors forced to abandon tanker
A tanker in the Strait of Hormuz reported being struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat
Iran and the United States have continued to target military sites and infrastructure as fighting reaches its tenth day since the fragile ceasefire fell apart.
Listen to this article
US Central Command (Centcom) has said that it has targeted Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems in a bid to stop attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
It comes as a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz reported being struck by an unknown projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said.
UKMTO said it had received multiple reports on Tuesday that a tanker had broadcast over VHF Channel 16 that it had been hit by an unknown projectile. The incident was reported eight nautical miles east of Oman's Limah and authorities were investigating.
Read more: Iran will pay for killing US troops ‘many times over’, warns Trump
Read more: US open to 'diplomatic solution' as it ends ninth day of strikes against Iran
UKMTO said the tanker's company security officer had reported that the crew had abandoned the vessel and were aboard a lifeboat and no environmental impact had been reported.
UKMTO did not identify the ship or its owner.
Centcom said that it has helped 900 commercial vessels travel through the Strait and 450 million barrels of crude oil.
The force added: "American forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression toward civilian mariners seeking to freely and openly transit the strait."
Separately, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that two oil tankers had caught fire after explosions while attempting to transit the southern route of the strait.
The Guards said rescue teams were removing the crews from the area but did not identify the vessels. Reuters could not independently verify the Guards' statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the tanker reported by UKMTO was among those cited by the Guards.
The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, was the main transit route before the conflict for around a fifth of global energy supplies.
Iran announced on Tuesday that it has targeted US military sites, including lodgings, overnight in Bahrain as well as Amazon infrastructure in the country.
Foreign ministers from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and major partners have meetings in Manila this week against a backdrop of instability since the U.S. and Iran resumed open conflict, raising fears about energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as inflation and global growth.
Risks have increased in recent days, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis announcing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front in the conflict and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
"We are deeply concerned that these developments severely undermine the ongoing efforts of key mediators and diminish the prospects for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and diplomacy," the ministers said in a statement after a closed-door meeting.
Southeast Asia, a major oil importer with a combined gross domestic product of $3.8 trillion, is highly exposed to the supply crunch and has sought to fast-track an ASEAN oil-sharing mechanism to mitigate the impact.
ASEAN has no shortage of challenges closer to home and will on Tuesday hold a consultation on the conflict in Myanmar, as the bloc's peace initiative falters, five years after a military coup that plunged the country into a civil war that has killed an estimated 100,000 people.
Tensions have escalated since a fragile truce between Washington and Tehran collapsed in early July, reviving heavy exchanges of strikes and further disrupting shipping through the waterway.
The United States reimposed a blockade of Iranian ports from July 14, including firing at an empty tanker in the strait that Washington said was bound for Iran. Iran has said it launched operations against U.S. bases in retaliation for what it called maritime violations.
"As long as America's mischief in the region continues, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and not even one drop of oil or gas nor a single shipment of chemical fertiliser will be exported from the area," the Guards said in a statement on Tuesday.