TEHRAN, Iran: Iran and the United States gave conflicting accounts Monday of damage to the EL GAIA tanker. The incident occurred near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said the Panama-flagged tanker struck a naval mine after entering what it described as a restricted area south of the strait. The IRGC said an explosion caused a major fire aboard the vessel.
U.S. Central Command rejected that account. CENTCOM said Iran had struck the EL GAIA with a missile last month and then hit the disabled tanker again with a drone over the weekend while it remained off the coast of Oman.
It said a regional partner was towing the vessel. The IRGC said crews failed to control the fire and claimed flames had engulfed the entire vessel. It also repeated its assertion that Iran still controlled the Strait of Hormuz and kept it closed.
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There was no immediate independent confirmation of the IRGC account or confirmed information on casualties.
Ship-registry data identifies EL GAIA as a 180-metre oil tanker with IMO number 9325336 and deadweight capacity of about 48,000 tonnes.
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The dispute came as commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained sharply below prewar levels, according to ship-tracking data.
