DUBAI, Saturday, October 31, 2026 — Four oil tankers caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said, in a fresh blow to shipping through the key oil chokepoint — even as US President Donald Trump predicted the war with Iran would soon be over.
The Revolutionary Guard said the vessels were travelling along what it described as unauthorised routes when they were hit, and Iranian state media reported that a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of oil was among those set ablaze after striking a naval mine. The claims could not be independently verified.
Limpet mines and a rescue off Oman
Britain’s maritime trade agency, UKMTO, confirmed at least one attack on Friday, reporting that a vessel was struck by an unidentified projectile south of Iran’s Lavan Island, causing a fire on board. Maritime security sources told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that a small boat had attached two limpet mines to the hull of the Panama-flagged tanker Louise 1, about 25 nautical miles north-east of Khasab in Oman, sparking an engine-room fire.
India’s shipping minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, confirmed that 27 Indian seafarers aboard the Louise 1 were safe. Oman’s authorities said separately that 25 crew members had been evacuated from a Panama-flagged merchant vessel after it was attacked and caught fire off the Musandam coast.
The Louise 1 strike is the first known successful use of limpet mines in the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in February, analysts said, a dangerous new tactic in a waterway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil.
‘Wrapped up soon’
Speaking in an interview with Kansas City radio station KCMO on Friday, as he campaigned ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections, Trump said he believed the conflict would soon be over. “It’s going to get wrapped up soon,” he said, adding that Iran wanted to keep talking and that Washington was under no time pressure.
Trump has previously said the United States would not strike Iran before the elections, with the conflict now a central campaign issue. Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday to present amendments to a proposed peace agreement aimed at ending the conflict.
A record month for shipping attacks
The latest incidents cap the worst month for Gulf shipping since the war began. UKMTO data tallied by Al Jazeera shows at least 35 attacks on shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in October — the highest monthly total since February — and 145 incidents since the conflict started. Shipping through the strait remains about 70 per cent below pre-war levels.
Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, insisted the cleared southern transit routes remained safe. In a video recorded during a recent flight over the strait, he said he had seen dozens of commercial vessels transiting and no Iranian military presence, adding that US forces had helped Gulf countries export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil since the summer.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, struck a defiant note, warning of what he called an “earth-shattering blow” if Iranians were harmed again. With tankers still burning and diplomats still shuttling, the gap between Trump’s prediction of a swift end and the reality on the water has rarely looked wider.
