Boat Attaches Two Mines to Tanker in Hormuz, Sparking Engine-Room Fire
Key Facts
Reuters reported that a small boat attached two limpet mines to the hull of a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a fire in the engine room and temporarily disabling the vessel. The incident occurred on Thursday, 29 October, 25 nautical miles northeast of Khasab in Oman, according to a notice from the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre cited by the agency. Three maritime security sources identified the tanker as the Panama-flagged Louise 1 and said assessments indicated it had been targeted with limpet mines. Reuters, citing the centre, reported that the crew was safe and the fire had been extinguished, with no environmental impact. The tanker also continued to its next port after being briefly disabled.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, according to the Reuters report, which therefore did not attribute responsibility to any particular party. The vessel's identification is based on three maritime security sources, while the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre's notice described explosive devices attached by a small boat without naming the tanker or specifying the type of devices. Reuters attributed the description of them as limpet mines to assessments by maritime security sources. This distinction defines what has been publicly reported about the incident and what is attributed to source assessments. Reuters' report did not state the number of crew members, while the Associated Press reported that 25 people had been evacuated from another tanker, without establishing a link between that incident and the Louise 1.
Marisks, a maritime risk specialist, said a small boat's ability to approach a tanker as it transits, attach explosive devices and then withdraw poses a major security concern in the busy Hormuz shipping lanes. The assessment is directly relevant to the incident, as Reuters said the boat attached the devices to the tanker's hull before the engine room caught fire. Marisks added that limpet mines had appeared in the area since 2017 and had been used against tankers in the strait in subsequent years. Reuters described the attack as the first known successful strike using these mines in the area since the U.S.-Iran war began in February 2026. It was also followed, according to two sources cited by the agency, by a separate attempt in September in which the devices did not explode.
The vessel has a previous record of incidents in the Black Sea; Reuters reported that Ukrainian sea drones struck the Louise 1 in July 2026. Ukraine's Security Service said at the time that the vessel had been targeted because of an alleged role in transporting Russian oil as part of what it described as Moscow's shadow fleet. That earlier incident is separate from the Hormuz attack, whose perpetrator remains unknown. Separately, the Associated Press said Iran's Revolutionary Guard announced on Friday that three oil tankers had caught fire after hitting mines, including a tanker carrying more than 2 million barrels. The agency said it could not verify the Iranian claim and had not established a connection to the attack on the Louise 1.
In a separate development, the Associated Press said Oman's Maritime Security Centre announced the evacuation of 25 crew members from a Panama-flagged tanker that caught fire off Musandam governorate, 1.6 nautical miles from the coast. The report did not establish whether that tanker was linked to the incidents announced by the Revolutionary Guard or to the attack on the Louise 1. The agency said Iran had repeatedly warned ships against transiting the strait without Tehran's permission and had declared control over a large part of the passage since the U.S.-Israeli war broke out on 28 February 2026. In June, the agency reported that France and Britain had been working for months on a proposed defensive mission to reassure commercial shipping and conduct mine-clearing operations in the strait. The report did not specify when the proposed mission would begin.