Iran says seven ships struck mines in two days; no maritime authority has confirmed any of them

The Public Relations Office of the IRGC Navy announced on Friday 6 November, in a statement carried by Iranian state media, that two oil tankers caught fire after striking sea mines — one east of the Strait of Hormuz, one inside it. “Two violating oil tankers — one east of the Strait of Hormuz and the other within the Strait itself — that attempted to transit via an unauthorized route struck mines,” the statement read as rendered by CBS News. The IRGC said both vessels had switched off their navigation and identification systems and were moving with US military support. It was the second consecutive day of such claims: Iranian media reported on Thursday 5 November that five oil tankers and a tugboat had caught fire in similar circumstances. AFP reported that no maritime authority had confirmed any of the incidents across the two days.

The counter-claim is as interested as the claim. CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper said on 25 October that the main shipping lanes in the strait remain clear of Iranian sea mines, and CENTCOM issued a statement in November saying more than 3,000 commercial vessels had transited the waterway over the preceding six months under US escort. CENTCOM had already rejected an earlier IRGC assertion that a supertanker struck a mine. Trump has accused Iran of lying about the incidents to drive up energy prices, CBS reported. Separately on 6 November, a tanker reported an explosion while transiting the strait, believed struck by two unidentified projectiles 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar. The operating company confirmed a death: “The company is greatly saddened to report the death of one of its seafarers, who was found fatally injured on board after having initially been reported missing in the aftermath of the explosion.” Neither vessel nor operator has been named in the material available.

Qeshm Island, at the strait’s mouth, remains the node both sides keep returning to. The IRGC said Iranian air defences destroyed a US MQ-1 drone over Qeshm on 6 November; no US confirmation has surfaced. The Jerusalem Post — not a neutral outlet on this file — reported that two missiles struck Qeshm after aircraft were heard overhead, a single-source account that remains unconfirmed. Trump declined to confirm US strikes near Qeshm on Friday, telling reporters, per Iran International’s liveblog, “We do minor strikes,” and saying Iran had built “a little bit of an anti-aircraft device” that US forces had destroyed. Al Jazeera reported US strikes on Qeshm on 3 November, which would make the island a target at least twice in a week. Al Jazeera’s own tally of Friday counted three tankers reported hit — three events of three different evidentiary qualities, not one number.

Assessment: Read the IRGC’s phrasing rather than its arithmetic. By attributing damage to mines struck on “unauthorized routes,” Tehran asserts regulatory authority over the strait without claiming an attack — deniability and sovereignty in a single sentence. The gap between declaratory policy and measured water is the whole file: Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told reporters in Tehran that “the Strait of Hormuz is closed,” while Vanguard analyst Barun Gupta told AFP in mid-October that Hormuz traffic had returned to around 80 percent of pre-war levels. Seven claimed casualties, zero confirmations and 3,000 escorted transits cannot all be true. UKMTO’s next confirmed-incident list, not either navy’s press office, settles it.