US Navy Watches Helplessly As Iran Blows Up 2 Ships With 4 Million Barrels Of Oil In Hormuz

More than 4 million barrels of oil are now burning aboard two supertankers in the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran says what happened was no accident – and no warning was ignored.

According to a report by Times of India (TOI) on Thursday, the two vessels were disabled overnight after massive explosions rocked the world’s most important oil chokepoint.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says both vessels repeatedly ignored orders to stay away from a route Tehran has declared unsafe and unauthorized before the explosions disabled them.

The IRGC’s statement comes from the IRGC Navy’s public relations office, which says both vessels were supertankers carrying a combined cargo of more than 4 million barrels of oil.

According to the IRGC, the ships attempted to cross through what Tehran calls the unauthorized southern route of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran says its Strait of Hormuz traffic control center repeatedly warned the vessels that the route was prohibited and unsafe. The tankers continued. Then came what the IRGC described as very large explosions. Both vessels were disabled.

American naval forces, which maintain a heavy presence around the waterway, were said to be in the area at the time but could not stop what happened.

Iran Says Ships Defied Repeated Warnings

The IRGC’s statement then went considerably further, directly connecting the incident to America’s military presence around the waterway.

It accused the vessels of cooperating with what it called the predatory and aggressive American army to move through the southern route. And Tehran issued an explicit warning to other ships attempting the same passage.

The IRGC says vessels that switch off their navigation systems and cooperate with American forces to cross through the prohibited southern corridor will have the same fate.

Iran insists the southern route has been closed for security reasons and that any vessel using it is doing so at its own risk, especially if it is working with US forces.

Maritime sources say the Strait of Hormuz carries nearly a fifth of the world’s oil supply, and any disruption there sends immediate shockwaves through global energy markets.

The burning tankers have now raised fresh fears of an oil price spike, environmental disaster, and a direct military confrontation between Iran and the United States.

US Presence Fails To Stop Attack

The incident is being seen in Tehran as a major embarrassment for Washington, which has deployed warships, drones and surveillance aircraft to the Gulf to protect shipping.

Despite that presence, Iran says it was able to disable both vessels without any interference, a claim that has stunned observers in the region.

The US Navy has not yet issued a detailed response to the IRGC’s claims, but the incident comes at a time of rising tensions between Iran and America over sanctions, military deployments, and the war in the Middle East.

Iran has long warned that it will not allow what it calls hostile forces to use the Strait to threaten its security, and Thursday’s explosions appear to be its strongest warning yet.

For now, both tankers remain disabled and burning, with rescue and firefighting efforts hampered by the scale of the blaze and the security situation in the area.

Tehran says any ship that follows the same path will face the same consequence.

Watch the video