Supertanker explodes after hitting mines on illegal route south of Hormuz: IRGC Navy
The Navy of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says a supertanker that tried to force its way through a restricted zone south of the Strait of Hormuz exploded after striking naval mines, with the entire vessel now engulfed in flames.
In a statement issued on Monday night, the IRGC Navy identified the ship as the Algaya, also listed as El Gaia, with IMO number 9325336.
The IRGC Navy said the tanker attempted to transit an unauthorized and unsafe passage despite earlier warnings about the route's dangers.
Efforts to contain the blaze failed, the statement added, leaving the ship fully on fire.
The IRGC Navy stated that the incident was the predictable result of ignoring Iran’s maritime security regulations in a waterway placed under wartime control after the United States and the Israeli regime launched an unprovoked war of aggression against the Islamic Republic.
“The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy firmly declares that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and remains under our smart control,” the force said.
Iranian naval authorities have repeatedly cautioned shipping companies not to act on false American assurances about so-called safe corridors. They have said vessels that enter mined or prohibited areas, or that sail without coordination with the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, put their crews and cargo at risk.
Iranian officials have dismissed US propaganda designed to lure commercial traffic into unsafe waters and to conceal the failure of the American military to reopen a strait it does not control.
The IRGC Navy has stressed that compliance with Iranian regulations is mandatory and that the fate of any vessel violating the security rules of Hormuz will be no different from that of ships already halted or set ablaze.
Tehran has conditioned any change in the status of the strategic waterway on an end to US hostility, the lifting of the illegal naval and economic blockade against Iran, and a durable halt to aggression across the region. Until those conditions are met, the IRGC says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to violators and under Iranian surveillance and control.
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