In a statement released on Tuesday, the IRGC Navy said one of the vessels, a supertanker, struck a naval mine and suffered an explosion.

The second tanker, which was under the protection of the US aggressive military’s warplanes and attempting to secretly transit the strait through an unauthorized route, was also involved in an incident and brought to a halt by a massive fire, it added.

The statement said both tankers had switched off all their navigation and identification systems before encountering the Strait of Hormuz’s “wall of fire.” They were left burning off the strait’s southern coast, it noted.

The IRGC Navy reiterated its previous warnings that the unauthorized route is unsafe, cautioning that all vessels cooperating with the “terrorist and aggressor US military” and attempting to use that passage would face the same fate.