An Indian-flagged tanker was shot at and a cruise ship threatened with destruction as Iran reimposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, hours after a brief reopening that allowed only a handful of vessels through before traffic ground to a halt again.
The India-flagged tanker Sanmar Herald was approaching the strait northeast of Oman when two Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats closed in without making radio contact and opened fire, damaging the bridge windows, according to UK maritime security officials and the vessel’s captain. No injuries were reported. Aboard the Malta-flagged cruise ship Mein Schiff 4, the master relayed IRGC radio transmissions warning the vessel it faced destruction, though the ship was not struck.
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A third vessel, a container ship in the same area, was hit by a projectile that damaged several containers, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said, without identifying the ship or its flag.
The attacks came within hours of a Friday announcement from Tehran offering a temporary respite in its blockade of the strait — a waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the current conflict. Iran declared the waterway closed after US and Israeli strikes on February 28 triggered the war.
By Saturday afternoon, Tehran had reversed course. Iran’s central military command said it would resume what it called “strict management” of the passage, citing a continuing US counter-blockade as its justification.
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A window that barely opened. Tracking data from Kpler showed at least eight oil and gas tankers crossed the strait in the early hours of Saturday after Tehran’s Friday announcement. But the window closed quickly. Several crude oil tankers that had approached Larak Island — the Iranian checkpoint at the entry to the Gulf — turned back. Four container ships flying the flag of French shipping giant CMA CGM aborted their exit around 1000 GMT. Three reportedly empty cruise ships fled the area. By late afternoon, the flow had nearly stopped.
The Mein Schiff 4 was among those that escaped, retreating from the Gulf after receiving the destruction threat. MarineTraffic platforms showed the broad pullback as operators absorbed the renewed risk.
The strait’s closure since February has trapped hundreds of commercial vessels inside the Gulf, driven up global oil prices and sharply increased the cost of shipping goods across major commodity routes. Ship captains have cited both the threat of Iranian attack and the danger of sea mines as reasons for avoiding the waterway.
The shipping industry had already greeted Friday’s announcement with skepticism. Jakob Larsen, chief security officer of major shipping association BIMCO, urged operators to keep clear, citing the mine threat as unresolved. The brief reopening did nothing to change that calculus.
Saturday’s incidents follow a war that has reshaped the region’s commercial shipping lanes since its outbreak in late February. The strait, at its narrowest roughly 33 kilometres wide, has no viable alternative for tankers leaving the Persian Gulf. With Iran again enforcing its blockade, the economic toll on global commodity markets — already elevated since the war began — shows no sign of easing.