And there's a separate report too. The UK's maritime agency says a captain sent a mayday the same day, saying a different ship got hit by an unknown projectile. Nobody knows if that's one of Iran's two tankers, or a fourth ship entirely.
No names. No flags. No cargo. No word on the crews.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersSo why does this matter? Mines change everything.
Up to now, ships have been hit by drones, projectiles, boats packed with explosives. Someone has to aim those. A mine just sits there. It hits whoever comes next.
And the strait is already almost empty. A tracker called IMF PortWatch counted just two ships passing through on 25 October. Before this war, the daily average was 85. So Hormuz is already shut in everything but name.
Here's where this sits in the bigger picture. Three days ago, a small boat pulled up next to a tanker near Khasab, in Oman, and stuck two bombs to its hull. The crew survived. The next day, a Qatari gas carrier called the Al Mayeda got hit by unidentified objects. Saudi Arabia and the UAE both condemned it. Nobody was hurt.
October was the worst month of this war for ship attacks. At least 29 hit. More than any month since the war started in February. Over 120 ships have been hit in total, according to the International Maritime Organization and UKMTO.
Iran has said from day one that any ship passing without its permission faces what it calls destruction. And the attacks have picked up since July, when the United States reimposed a blockade on Iran's southern ports.
So here's why it might get worse first. Iran's Supreme Leader's office says he has told his military commanders to get ready for an immediate response, no geographical limit, against American and Israeli targets. And Donald Trump, the US President, says the war ends very soon, one way or the other. Iran makes a deal, he says, or in his words, "we'll just end it".
Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, says talks are underway right now on a two-day plan to reopen the strait. That's shorter than the seven-day plan Iran offered only days before. He says Iran will not give up its sovereign rights, whatever pressure and threats it's under.
So nobody can say yet if these mines mean Iran is tightening its grip on Hormuz, or if the diplomacy happening right now is falling apart.
