Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Says LPG Tanker Exploded After Striking Mine in Strait of Hormuz
Key Facts
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said a liquefied petroleum gas tanker caught fire and suffered "massive explosions" after striking a sea mine in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim reported on November 13, 2026. Reuters published the Guard’s account on the same day, saying a tanker carrying liquefied natural gas struck a mine and exploded in the strait. Reuters said details about the tanker were not immediately available. The account of this specific incident remains attributed to the Iranian side, as no independent confirmation appeared in the open sources covering it. The report falls among accounts of navigation risks in the strait, and its details should be treated as claims reported by Iranian media.
According to Tasnim, the navy said the tanker had attempted to take a southern route hours before the incident, describing it as "prohibited and dangerous," despite repeated warnings. The Iranian account linked the attempted passage to the mine strike, but provided no independent details about the vessel’s location, identity or the extent of the damage. Reuters reported that details about the tanker were not immediately available, leaving these aspects without further information in its report. The navy also said the vessel had relied on support from U.S. fighter jets during its passage. In this context, it said, "Sea mines do not coordinate with the smuggling and aggressor U.S. military," a political accusation included in its account of the incident.
The navy’s statement went beyond describing the incident and included a warning to vessels using unauthorized routes and disregarding instructions from the Guard’s traffic monitoring center in the Strait of Hormuz. It said any vessel attempting to violate Iranian rules and enter routes it described as dangerous would face the same fate as vessels before it. The warning presents Tehran’s stated position on managing traffic in the strait and puts compliance with Iranian instructions at the center of its message to passing vessels. The report gave no details of specific navigation steps the navy requested from vessels or a timeline for subsequent measures. It also mentioned no new operational measures beyond the warning.
The account comes after closely spaced Iranian reports of other incidents in the strait, but does not independently establish that the current incident occurred. In a separate report dated November 13, Tasnim said Iran’s military announced that 2 oil tankers caught fire in the eastern part of the strait after striking sea mines. In Reuters coverage published the same day, Iranian media had reported the previous day that 4 oil tankers had been hit by explosions in the waterway. These were separate incidents from the gas tanker covered by Tasnim’s report and do not independently confirm its identity or the cause of its explosion. The succession of reports reflects multiple Iranian accounts of maritime incidents over 2 days, with details of each event remaining tied to its source.
In a broader context, Reuters cited the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as saying that at least 10 vessels were hit during the first 10 days of November. That followed 37 attacks on vessels during October, the highest monthly total since the conflict began in late February, according to the institute. These figures relate to broader incidents and do not specify whether the gas tanker mentioned was among them. Reuters said attacks on tankers continued despite a recovery in traffic through the strait and expectations of de-escalation. Those expectations, the report said, were reflected in lower oil prices, while tanker passage continued to come under attack.