Two sailors are missing after an oil tanker caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, while 23 others have been rescued, according to Oman's Maritime Security Centre.
The centre said the Panama-flagged El Gaia was targeted 1.3 nautical miles north of Oman's Musandam peninsula. The vessel was being towed to an Omani port after a fire broke out in its engine room.
Accounts of what caused the incident differ. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that the tanker had struck naval mines while travelling through what they called a restricted and unsafe route. The US military rejected that explanation, saying the Iranian report was false and that the tanker had been hit by an Iranian missile last month and then by a drone over the weekend.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said it had received a report of a vessel being struck by an unknown projectile and catching fire while transiting the strait early on Sunday. The available accounts did not identify the perpetrators independently.
The incident follows a similar dispute over the Saudi-owned supertanker Sidr earlier this month. Iran said that vessel caught fire after hitting a naval mine, while Saudi authorities said it had been targeted by Iran. Maritime security firms reported that the ship was hit by projectiles north of Musandam; two Filipino sailors were killed, according to the source material.
The International Maritime Organization says at least 22 seafarers have died in 79 confirmed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere in the Middle East since the start of the US and Israel's war with Iran at the end of February. The waterway normally carries about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments, making attacks there a major threat to commercial shipping and energy supplies. Oman's Maritime Security Centre did not provide further details on the cause of the latest fire.