In a statement, the IRGC Navy said a non-compliant supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil and attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route was involved in an incident that resulted in an explosion and a severe fire after it hit a mine.
The tanker had switched off all its positioning and radar systems in an attempt to pass through the strait by deception and with the support of the “US smuggling and terrorist army,” the IRGC Navy said.
“The Strait of Hormuz is closed,” the statement declared, warning that the fate of vessels violating Iran’s regulations governing the waterway is to “burn in the fire of trust in the US terrorist army.”