Iran just said it set five oil tankers on fire in Hormuz

Iran says five oil tankers and a tugboat have just caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Two different branches of Iran's military are telling this story. And nobody outside Iran has confirmed a word of it.

First, the Revolutionary Guards. They told Fars news agency overnight that a big oil tanker tried to pass through what they called "the illegal passageway south of the Strait of Hormuz". It hit a mine, caught fire, and stopped.

Then they said a second supertanker caught fire leaving the eastern side of the Strait. A tugboat went to help put the fire out. It caught fire too.

Then Iran's army gave its own account, through the state agency IRNA. One tanker, they said, hit a naval mine east of the Strait early this morning, caught fire, and stopped. Around midday, they added two more. Same area. Same story. Naval mines, fire.

Add it up. Five tankers. One tugboat. Two military statements. Under 24 hours.

And here's the thing. None of it is confirmed.

No shipping company has confirmed it. No insurer has confirmed it. No maritime authority has confirmed it. Nobody outside Iran's own military says these ships even exist, let alone that they were hit.

There was one separate, confirmed incident nearby. The British maritime monitor UKMTO says a tanker was hit by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Qatar. That's roughly 500 kilometres west of the Strait. No damage. Nobody has said who did it. And it's not even the same location Iran is talking about.

So why does this matter, if nobody can confirm it?

Because the Strait of Hormuz carries about a fifth of all the oil the world uses. And Iran has been restricting traffic through it since its war with the United States and Israel started at the end of February. At least five tankers have already been damaged there this year. A Qatari-flagged gas carrier, the Al Mayeda, was hit by unidentified objects about a week ago. UKMTO says it can't even count the real number of incidents anymore, because most ships have stopped reporting them.