Maritime monitors report strikes on two commercial vessels near Oman as US Central Command targets Iranian mine-laying units and coastal positions
DUBAI — September 2, 2026 : Two commercial tankers were struck by projectiles near the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, maritime monitors said Wednesday, prompting fresh US strikes against Iranian military installations along the strategic waterway.
The attacks targeted both inbound and outbound traffic navigating the entrance to the Persian Gulf, according to the Bahrain-based Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC).
The first vessel, the oil tanker Burgan, reported an attack while transiting westbound before dropping anchor roughly one nautical mile northwest of Jazirat Um Al Ghanam off Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. A second commercial tanker was hit by three projectiles approximately 17 nautical miles east of Khasab, Oman, as it navigated outbound from the waterway. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed that neither incident resulted in crew casualties or marine oil spills.
The strikes follow what regional security officials describe as a campaign of surveillance and harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iranian units have operated surveillance drones over commercial sea lanes, targeted merchant ships, and repeatedly issued warning hails across marine VHF radio channels to challenge commercial crews.
Commercial tanker traffic through Hormuz remains sharply depressed. Vessel-tracking data reviewed by maritime monitors shows transit figures lingering in the single digits in both directions, well below normal operating volumes for a passage that typically carries nearly 20 percent of global petroleum consumption.
US Central Command retaliated by launching strikes against Iranian radar sites, air-defence batteries, coastal communications facilities, and mine-laying capabilities. Those strikes followed an operation on Larak Island, where American forces hit rocket-launcher batteries that US officials said were being prepared to target commercial transit and lay naval mines.
Iran responded with ballistic missiles and drone salvos directed toward regional military installations hosting American personnel, including sites in Jordan and the Gulf. The escalating exchanges have heightened concerns across the shipping sector that the military confrontation is shifting directly into commercial maritime corridors.
