Strait of Hormuz: Singapore confirms the sinking of the container ship GFS Pride

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has confirmed that the Singapore-flagged container ship GFS Pride caught fire and sank after being hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz. After DIAR's earlier report on the attack on two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz, this official confirmation is the first official announcement that one of the two ships has sunk.

According to the authority, GFS Pride was struck on Tuesday, 13 October, by a projectile that damaged the ship's structure and started a fire, and the ship eventually sank. All 21 of its crew were taken to safety and no one was injured. The second ship, GFS Gisele, was damaged in its hull in a separate attack but reached a safe anchorage under its own engine power, and its 22 crew are unharmed. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore called the origin of the projectiles "unclear" and said no Singaporean citizens were aboard either ship.

The ship's capacity and the navigation warning

Maritime security sources put GFS Pride's capacity at 2,824 twenty-foot standard containers. The Pakistan Hydrographic Department also reported the ship's sinking, and containers floating in the water, in a navigational warning. According to International Maritime Organization data, this is the second ship to sink in the waterway since the war began.

At the same time, maritime security sources reported a critical situation aboard Cape Dao, an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged bulk carrier that had earlier been hit by a projectile. The British maritime risk group Vanguard said efforts to salvage the ship have failed and that it is sinking.

The IRGC's claim and a change in attack tactics

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had earlier claimed that a container ship carrying more than 2,500 containers had struck a "sea mine" south of the Strait of Hormuz and sunk; the IRGC did not name the ship, and DIAR reported on that claim. Two senior officials of the Islamic Republic had also said earlier that, with new tactics for attacking ships, Tehran is trying to keep oil prices high and to influence the US election on 3 November, and that the range of these attacks is extending to the Gulf of Oman and more distant waters.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre had earlier reported 15 attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz from 6 to 14 October. The US-led Joint Maritime Information Center has kept the threat level in the waterway at "severe", one level below the highest. The United States continues its naval blockade of the Islamic Republic's ports.

The sinking of GFS Pride is the first official confirmation by a government of a merchant ship sinking in the new wave of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.