The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) reported a second vessel was fired upon in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, hours after an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps gunboat attacked a container ship in the same waters.
In Warning 043-26, UKMTO said the master of an outbound cargo ship reported being fired on approximately eight nautical miles west of Iran. The vessel stopped in the water following the incident. No damage was reported and all crew members were confirmed safe.
“UKMTO is aware of high levels of activity in the Strait of Hormuz area and encourages vessels to report any suspicious activity,” the agency said in the advisory.
The second attack follows the earlier IRGC gunboat strike on a container ship 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, which caused heavy damage to that vessel’s bridge. Two armed attacks on commercial shipping in a single day marks a sharp escalation in the maritime dimension of the Iran crisis.
Shipping through the strategic waterway has been heavily restricted by Iran since the war with Israel and the United States began on February 28. The US military continues to enforce a blockade of Iranian ports, while IRGC forces have repeatedly interdicted commercial traffic passing through the chokepoint.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that the US-Iran truce first agreed on April 8 would be extended indefinitely at Pakistan’s request, though the Wednesday deadline originally set for a new framework deal has now been dropped. The diplomatic track has not eased operational pressure on the waterway, where incident numbers have continued to climb since late February.
UKMTO has now recorded 22 attacks among 35 total maritime incidents logged in the February 28 to April 22 window, according to its recent-incidents bulletin.
Sources: Ada Derana, UKMTO
