A speed boat linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has opened fire on a container ship sailing about 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the official British agency UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
The organization, dependent on the United Kingdom and responsible for alerting about maritime security incidents, has detailed that the attack occurred without prior radio contact and that the shots directly impacted the vessel.
Damage to the bridge
According to the UKMTO report, the ship's captain reported that the Iranian boat approached and opened fire, causing severe damage to the bridge.
Despite the seriousness of the attack the entire crew is safe, no fires have been registered and there have been no contamination or spills into the sea.
For the moment, the authorities have not made public neither the identity nor the flag of the container ship, something usual in the early stages of this type of incidents.
Conflicting versions of what happened
While the initial UKMTO report points to an attack without prior communication, Iranian media maintain that the ship would have ignored warnings before the armed intervention. This divergence leaves open doubts about the exact sequence of events, in a context of high informational opacity in the area.
The incident occurs just hours after Donald Trump announced the extension of a ceasefire in the context of the current crisis with Iran.
Far from reducing the tension, the attack shows that the Strait of Hormuz —through which nearly 20% of the world's oil transits— continues to be a critical point, with direct risk to global trade and energy security.