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A projectile, thought to be fired by Tehran due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, hit a cargo ship in the strategic Strait of Hormuz abutting Iran, causing a fire and forcing the crew to evacuate, a maritime security agency said Wednesday.
It remains unclear whether the British cargo ship chose to pass through the strait despite Iran’s threats.
According to U.S. intelligence, Iran began laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, following reports that the U.S. Navy intends to escort oil tankers passing through the waterway.
"It has been reported that a cargo vessel has been hit by an unknown projectile in the Straits of Hormuz, which has resulted in a fire onboard," the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.
The strait, barely 21 miles wide at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman, normally handles roughly 20% of global crude supply.
Its two shipping lanes, each only about two miles wide, funnel the world's largest tankers through one of the most predictable and vulnerable corridors in international shipping.
Since the IRGC declared the strait closed on March 2, commercial traffic has all but vanished. Tanker movements collapsed by roughly 90% within days of the conflict's start, according to ship tracker MarineTraffic.
US President Donald Trump issued back-to-back warnings to Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, demanding the immediate removal of any naval mines placed in the waterway and threatening consequences that would render the country unable to rebuild, as US intelligence detected small Iranian craft moving mines into the world's most critical energy chokepoint.
In a post published roughly 19 hours before his message, Trump warned that any Iranian action blocking oil flow through the strait would be met with force "twenty times harder" than previous strikes.
Trump subsequently claimed a direct strike on the mine-laying capability, posting on Truth Social that US forces had "hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow," though his use of the word "inactive" left unclear whether the vessels were operational at the time of the strikes or had already been neutralized.
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