Southern Iran, November 7 — Explosions were heard on Saturday evening in several areas of southern Iran, including Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and the port of Jask, Iranian state television reported, according to Reuters. Haaretz, carrying Reuters and Associated Press reporting, said state television later widened the list to four locations — Qeshm, Jask, Sirik and Bandar Abbas, all on or near the strait. No Iranian official confirmed any missile strike on the areas, the United States issued no statement confirming or denying a new strike on Saturday evening, and no damage assessment has been released.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

The IRGC's late-Saturday tanker claim

In a statement issued by its public relations office and carried by the Tasnim news agency, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said on Saturday that two oil tankers — one east of the Strait of Hormuz and the other within the strait itself — had struck naval mines and were 'engulfed in intense flames', Press TV reported at 21:53 GMT. The statement said both vessels had deactivated their navigation and positioning systems to slip through an 'unauthorized' southern corridor, and had repeatedly ignored Iranian rules for passage through the waterway. 'Moments ago, two offending oil tankers — one east of the Strait of Hormuz and the other within the Strait — which were attempting to transit via an unauthorized route, struck mines and are now engulfed in intense flames,' the statement read.

Source: Press TV

The IRGC Navy paired the claim with a direct warning to all shipping, carried by China's Xinhua news agency: any vessel cooperating with what it called the 'aggressive US Army' and entering the area would 'definitely' hit mines, and it told mariners, 'do not pay heed to the fantasies of the CENTCOM commander'. The statement named no vessel, flag, owner or cargo, and reported no casualties. Reuters noted that it was not immediately clear whether the incidents the IRGC described were linked to the explosions heard across southern Iran the same evening.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

What is not confirmed

None of Saturday night's tanker claim has been independently confirmed. No maritime authority — including the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) or US Central Command — had confirmed any mine strike in the reports available on Saturday night, no independent tracking service has identified either vessel, and Iran has published no verifiable evidence for the claim. The claim is the latest in a near-daily series of Iranian mine claims since late October, none of which has been independently confirmed, and US Central Command has previously disputed at least one earlier Iranian mine claim as false. What is established is narrower: Iranian state media acknowledged explosions on the Hormuz coast on Saturday evening, and the IRGC Navy issued the tanker statement at 20:56 GMT.

Source: House of Saud (citing Xinhua and TASS)

Explosions: missile strikes, or Iran's own military activity?

Iranian accounts of the evening's explosions themselves conflict. Earlier on Saturday, the semi-official Tasnim agency had said two missiles struck Qeshm Island — a report that matched Friday night's Suza-area impacts, which President Trump later said were US strikes on an Iranian air-defence system. For Saturday evening's blasts, however, Tasnim cited a source as saying the explosions heard on Qeshm were NOT related to missile strikes, and Iranian state television suggested the sounds might be linked to Iranian military activities in the strategic waterway, Reuters reported. Israeli outlet N12 reported that casualties were being spoken of at Jask port, but gave no number, named no official source, and the claim has not been confirmed by any Iranian or wire report.

Source: Reuters via KSEV Radio

Background: a blockade, a disabled ship and a strait at a standstill

The US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, 2026, and Washington resumed its naval blockade of Iranian ports on July 14. Hours before the IRGC statement, CENTCOM said a US aircraft had fired precision munitions at the stern of the St Kitts-flagged M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman, disabling it after its crew ignored repeated warnings — the fifth merchant ship disabled since enforcement began in July, on CENTCOM's own tally, alongside 147 vessels redirected and more than $25 billion in Iranian crude exports the command says the blockade has kept off the market; those figures are CENTCOM's claims. The strait itself remains effectively closed: IMF PortWatch recorded a single transit on November 1 against a pre-crisis baseline of about 85 transits a day. On the diplomatic track, President Trump said on Friday that talks with Tehran were making progress, and Qatar has rejected reports that the negotiations have failed.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

For the large Punjabi and Indian workforce across the Gulf — seafarers, port and logistics workers among them — Saturday's sequence raises the practical risk around every Hormuz transit: within a single evening, a cargo ship was disabled by US fire in the Gulf of Oman, explosions were reported at four Iranian coastal locations, and the IRGC publicly warned that any vessel cooperating with US forces in its declared prohibited zone would 'definitely' hit mines. No Indian vessel or crew has been named in any of Saturday's reports.

Source: Nation Press

What happens next

What to watch: whether UKMTO, CENTCOM, a vessel operator or independent tracking data confirms or contradicts the IRGC's two-tanker claim; whether Washington or Tehran says anything official about Saturday evening's explosions and their cause; the first oil-market reaction when trading opens on Monday, after Brent settled at $98.32 a barrel on Friday; and whether the Qatar-mediated talks — which both sides say are still alive — survive another weekend of force in the strait. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as verified details are published.

Awaaz Punjab's report on Saturday morning's separate Iranian Navy tanker claim is here: Read the Saturday-morning tanker claim report