Revolutionary Guard reports explosions on supertankers in Ormuz

A Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that two more oil tankers suffered explosions and fires after colliding with mines while attempting to cross the Strait of Ormuz by an “unauthorised” route, in the context of increased maritime incidents in recent weeks.

“ Two supertankers who tried to cross the Strait of Ormuz by an unauthorized route, located southward, collided with naval mines,” the Iranian elite military corps reported on Friday at the end of the day in a statement released by the Tasnim agency.

According to the statement, the engine rooms of both ships were out of service due to explosions and heavy fires, so the vessels were immobilized.

“ These oil tankers carried, in total, more than 4.5 million barrels of crude oil which, after the impact on the naval mines on the south coast of the Strait of Ormuz, were abandoned, while the crew evacuated the ships,” the source explained, without specifying the flags of the vessels or reporting on possible victims.

In the last 10 days, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has recorded at least 15 incidents with ships, of which it has acknowledged that it has attacked four, stating that 11 others have collided with mines in a context of escalating tensions in this strategic maritime passage.

The Iranian military corps maintains the warning that it will not allow the passage of ships without their permission, while the United States is attempting to restore traffic by a route near Oman.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of trying to incarcerate oil to harm Republicans in the mid-term elections on November 3.

The Islamic Republic seeks to maintain the blockade of the Strait of Ormuz as a pressure measure since the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on 28 February last.

However, the US claims to have managed to restore maritime traffic and that oil trade in the region has reached levels close to those recorded before the war.

In another statement released today, the Iranian Armed Forces warn that they will not allow the return of US military ships to the Persian Gulf under any circumstances.

“ We will not allow, under any circumstances and at any time, American military ships to enter the Persian Gulf,” said the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Ali Abdolahi, in a statement issued by Tasnim.

The high military command ensured that Trump “can only dream of the return of his armed forces and his army to the Persian Gulf.”.

“They will have to carry this desire to the grave forever,” said Abdolahi, after the Revolutionary Guard had stated, at the end of September, that the American ships had moved at least 500 kilometres from the entrance of the Strait of Ormuz and the Persian Gulf.

The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces also questioned Trump's repeated claims to have destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities.

“ If they destroyed everything, what sense does it make to repeat such nonsense?” the general said, indicating that the Iranian strategy is to sink more and more the US and Israel into the conflict as it goes on.

The Iranian warnings arise at a time when the United States reinforces its military presence in the Middle East with the dispatch of the USS aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which will join the USS George H. W. Bush and USS George Washington, already present in the region, with the US press referring to the possibility that Washington and Israel will resume bombings against Iran after the November elections.