Claim and reality: the IRGC and two supertankers 'hit by mines' in Hormuz

The navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed on the evening of Friday 23 October 2026 that two supertankers carrying about four and a half million barrels of crude oil had struck mines in the southern passage of the Strait of Hormuz and were left disabled after explosions and fires. The claim came an hour after Donald Trump spoke of the possibility of another military operation against the Islamic Republic.

The IRGC gave neither the names of the ships nor their flags, nor the condition of the crews, nor the owner of the cargo. By early Saturday, no shipping company, maritime body or government had confirmed that two tankers had struck mines in this passage.

A claim repeated many times

This is not the first time in recent months that the IRGC has published an almost identical account: two large tankers, each carrying about two million barrels of oil, hitting mines on a route the Islamic Republic calls "unauthorised". On 18 July 2026 the IRGC made the same claim about two tankers in the south of the strait, and US Central Command (CENTCOM) replied that this claim, like most IRGC claims, was false.

In another denial, CENTCOM said no ship had hit a mine in Hormuz and called such announcements a new IRGC attempt to frighten commercial shipping in the region with false information. The IRGC's claim of 18 October that two tankers had caught fire after hitting mines was also published without any ship names and without any independent confirmation.

Why the IRGC talks of invisible mines

The Islamic Republic has told ships to use only the waterways close to Iran's coast in the north of the strait and says the southern passages near Oman have been mined. Repeated announcements of unnamed ships hitting mines, with no ship, crew or oil slick ever seen, push shipping onto the very route the IRGC controls and drive up insurance costs.

Meanwhile, real attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz reached a new record in October, and the IRGC had earlier claimed attacks on seven ships; mixing real attacks with invented claims is the Islamic Republic's tool of psychological warfare on the eve of a new round of conflict.

DIAR's verdict

The IRGC's claim that two supertankers hit mines in the southern Strait of Hormuz is baseless: no name, flag, image or independent confirmation has been offered for it, and the US military has called the IRGC's earlier identical claims false.

The IRGC once again spoke of two unnamed tankers exploding on mines, without any sign of a ship, a crew or independent confirmation.