Two sailors have died from Monday’s attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, with Riyadh now formally accusing Iran of targeting the Bahri-owned Sidr as Tehran launches a new wave of missile and drone strikes against U.S. bases across the region.
Bahri confirmed Wednesday that the two Filipino crew members were killed in the attack. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for targeting the tanker and reiterated its rejection of attacks threatening “the security and safety of maritime navigation and global energy supplies.”
The Sidr was one of two supertankers hit near Oman late Monday while attempting to leave the Persian Gulf. UK Maritime Trade Operations initially reported that a tanker had been struck by three unknown projectiles, with no casualties reported at the time.
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Riyadh has not threatened military retaliation, but the deaths aboard the Sidr sharply raise the stakes for Saudi Arabia. Iran is now accused of killing crew aboard a tanker operated by the kingdom’s state shipping company as U.S. and Iranian forces exchange strikes across the Gulf.
Iran launched missiles and drones against U.S. military facilities in Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE on Wednesday after U.S. forces struck Iranian air defenses, radar systems, maritime assets and mine-laying capabilities a day earlier.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump said the United States now has “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” and warned Tehran that further retaliation would bring a U.S. response “at a much harder and higher level.”
The Sidr is the fourth Bahri vessel attacked since June. The Wedyan supertanker was hit in the Strait earlier in August, while Bahri vessels Amzan and Masa were attacked in the Red Sea after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia.
Only four commodity vessels crossed Hormuz on Tuesday, compared with 10 on Monday and a 10-day average of around 13, according to preliminary Kpler data cited by Reuters.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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