Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of attacking a Saudi-owned supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz, killing two Filipino crew members — the first reported deaths among merchant seafarers in this phase of the war.
The vessel was the Sidr, owned by the Saudi national shipping company Bahri. It was hit late on Monday while transiting the strait, Ada Derana reported.
“It is with profound sadness that Bahri confirms the loss of two of its Filipino seafarers as a result of the incident,” the company said, describing it as a “security incident” and extending condolences to the families. Bahri put the time at around 23:40 local (19:40 GMT) on Monday.
Maritime security firms said the Sidr was struck by projectiles north of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. A South Korean-owned supertanker, the Senegal Prosperity, was reportedly hit east of Musandam at about the same time. Both vessels were named in Sri Lankan coverage earlier this week in reporting on the oil price, before the deaths were confirmed.
Iran’s account differs
Iran has not responded to the Saudi allegation directly. It said earlier that two tankers had caught fire after striking mines while using an unauthorised route through the strait, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard repeated on Wednesday that “two oil tankers caught fire after striking mines while transiting the strait,” Al Jazeera reported.
The two versions are not reconcilable on the central question of who or what struck the ships.
Riyadh and Doha respond
The Saudi foreign ministry stressed “the necessity of halting escalations, and respecting international maritime safety and the security of global energy supplies.”
Qatar rejected the use of the waterway as a “bargaining chip” and called the attack a “flagrant violation of the rules of international law and freedom of maritime navigation.”
The wider exchange
The deaths were confirmed a day after the largest exchange of fire between Washington and Tehran since July, in which US aircraft struck Iran’s southern coast and Iranian forces fired on American bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq. Iran’s health minister said on Wednesday that 18 people were killed and 108 injured in the US attacks. Tehran has accused Washington of a war crime over a strike that killed four people, including two children, at a wedding in the southern city of Sirik; the US military said it was looking into the reports. That exchange is covered in our running report.
Before the war began on 28 February, about 20% of the world’s oil moved through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively closed it for six months.
Why it matters here
Fuel is the largest single line in Sri Lanka’s import bill, and the strait is the route most of it travels. Brent passed US$96 this week, its highest since June, with Goldman Sachs flagging US$120 by year-end. Crew deaths raise the insurance and manning costs of transiting the strait, which feed into the delivered price of a barrel regardless of where the benchmark settles.
Not reported
Neither outlet named the two seafarers, said whether the Sidr was laden or where it was bound, or reported the condition of the Senegal Prosperity or its crew. Neither carried a response from the Philippine government, which supplies a large share of the world’s merchant crews. No independent verification of either side’s account of the strikes has been published.
