The Commercial Maritime Operations center of the United Kingdom (UKMTO, according to its acronym in English), under the British Navy, reported this Thursday an "incident" recorded off the coast of Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz, where a "burning" vessel has been located, with no more concrete data on what happened available for the moment.
In its statement, the agency has detailed that the episode would have occurred some nine nautical miles north of Jasab, in Oman, which is equivalent to about 16.5 kilometers, and has specified that "the captain of a vessel has reported seeing another vessel in flames".
"The situation of the crew is unknown. For the moment, no damage assessment or report on the environmental impact is available", the UKMTO has indicated, which has urged ships sailing through the area to "sail with caution" and "report any suspicious activity".
Subsequently, the Revolutionary Guard has assured that three vessels have hit naval mines in the last 24 hours while trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz by an "unauthorized" route in the southern sector of the maritime passage.
According to its version, "these tankers deactivated all their radar and navigation systems and, ignoring the warnings of the Revolutionary Guard Navy, were trying to cross the unauthorized southern route of the Strait of Hormuz", according to a statement disseminated by Iranian public television.
In that message, the Iranian authorities insist that the companies that own the ships "should not pay attention" to the "inventions" of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which maintains that there are no naval mines in the area, also emphasizing that "the reality on the ground is evident".
CENTCOM, for its part, had rejected in recent hours the accusations from Tehran about several vessels damaged by naval mines while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz and has reiterated that the area is "free of mines".
"During the last few days and weeks, media controlled by Iran have spread Iranian claims according to which commercial vessels would be colliding with naval mines while transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. These claims are false", it has indicated in a message published on social networks.
Likewise, he has emphasized that "all internationally recognized main transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz have been cleared of naval mines by U.S. forces and remain in that state". "Thousands of commercial vessels have used these transit routes without incident and continue to do so to this day", he has added.
In response, the spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hosein Mohebi, has stressed through social networks that the "infanticidal" CENTCOM "must prove its claims about the removal of mines in the Strait of Hormuz with independent evidence, not with statements". "The reality in the Strait of Hormuz is defined in the skies, the land and the sea, not in cyberspace or in the United States' media war rooms", he has concluded.