At least one person has been killed after explosive-laden boats set ablaze two fuel tankers off the coast of Iraq in a drastic escalation in attacks on global shipping in the Gulf.
Iran has ramped up its blistering attacks on international shipping in recent days, threatening to more than double global oil prices with its tightly enforced blockade of the vital Strait of Hormuz.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu and the Malta-flagged Zefyros, which had loaded fuel cargoes in Iraq, were struck in the channel at dawn, bringing the number of attacks since the Iran crisis erupted to at least 16.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards took responsibility for the attack on the Safesea Vishnu, which it claimed was a US-owned tanker that had ignored warnings from the IRGC Navy in the northern Persian Gulf.
Iraqi rescue teams were still searching for survivors on one of the vessels late into the evening, after the other was evacuated. A port security official said they had recovered the body of an unnamed foreign crew member from the water.
“A boat belonging to the Iraqi Ports Company rescued 25 crew members from the two vessels, and the fires are still burning on both ships,” said Farhan al-Fartousi, director general of Iraq’s General Company for Ports.
Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG, said: “This appears to mark a direct and forceful Iranian response to the IEA’s overnight announcement of a massive strategic reserve release aimed at cooling runaway prices.”
Shipping in the Gulf and along the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which carries around a fifth of the world’s oil, has come to a near-standstill since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran on 28 February, sending global oil prices surging to highs not seen since 2022.
Iran has claimed responsibility for several attacks on commercial ships and laid mines this week in an effort to disrupt shipping, forcing countries around the world to take drastic measures to secure oil and keep down energy prices.
At least 17 commercial ships, carrying flags from Thailand, Japan, the Marshall Islands, Malta, the US, the UAE, Palau, Panama, Gibraltar and the Bahamas, have been attacked since the outbreak of hostilities on 28 February.
Earlier on Wednesday, three ships were struck by unidentified projectiles in the Strait as Iran threatened to send the global price of oil soaring with its aggressive blockade of the vital waterway.
Tehran’s feared Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for an attack on a Thai-flagged vessel, after unknown projectiles hit a Japan-flagged container ship and another Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier in the early hours of the morning.
A spokesperson for Iran’s military command warned that the world should be prepared for oil to hit $200 per barrel, as “the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilised”.
Crude prices hovered just above $90 per barrel on Thursday, having stabilised from the $120 per barrel high reported on Monday, suggesting investors are still betting that US president Donald Trump will soon be able to end the war.
At a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on Wednesday, ahead of the November midterm elections in which his party is badly trailing, Mr Trump insisted that the United States had already won the war, but did not want to have to go back every two years.
“We don’t want to leave early do we?” he said. “We got to finish the job.”
The International Energy Agency, made up of major oil-consuming nations, on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels from global strategic reserves to dampen one of the worst oil shocks since the 1970s, the biggest such intervention in history.
The move was aimed at stabilising oil markets, Executive Director Fatih Birol said at a press conference in Istanbul.
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