Iran has attacked ship navigation systems on Oman's Didamar island in the Strait of Hormuz, three sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday, November 11 — showing Tehran's ability to target the infrastructure being used to restore Gulf oil flows through the strait.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

The three sources did not provide a damage assessment, and Reuters said it could not determine independently whether any navigation systems were actually destroyed in the attacks — the attacks Tehran had claimed on Tuesday. Didamar is an Omani island in the strait whose navigation systems help guide shipping through the waterway.

What Iran claimed on Tuesday

Iranian state media said on Tuesday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had carried out strikes destroying “enemy navigation systems” on Didamar island. Reuters confirmed smoke rising from the island in video footage, although it was unclear what was burning, and an image from the European Union's Copernicus satellite programme also showed thermal activity on the island.

This is a follow-up to an earlier, unverified Iranian claim Awaaz Punjab reported on November 9 — that navigation aids in the south of the strait had been destroyed and no unauthorised vessel had crossed overnight. The Didamar attack is a separate, later claim about a named island, and Wednesday's Reuters reporting is the first multi-source confirmation that an attack on navigation infrastructure there actually happened: Read the November 9 report: Iran says navigation aids destroyed in Hormuz

Shipping sources: impact likely limited — for now

The attacks on Didamar would likely have limited impact on commercial shipping in the strait, two other shipping sources and an additional maritime security source told Reuters, one of them saying that was because other systems are in place elsewhere. The US military's Central Command and Oman's media ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The workarounds keeping Gulf oil moving

Gulf exporters have been increasingly using workarounds to increase oil flows via Hormuz, such as ship-to-ship transfers off the coast of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported. Bigger tankers — mostly very large crude carriers — shuttle oil from Gulf ports to ship-to-ship transfer locations near Oman's Sohar and the UAE's Fujairah. The recovery in exports, to over 80 percent of pre-war levels in September and October, was aided by US military-assisted flows through the strait and by higher Saudi exports via the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The US military has been aiding commercial vessels transiting the strait after Iranian attacks disrupted traffic since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February.

Why it matters in the Gulf — and what happens next

Didamar sits on the Omani side of the strait, on the southern routes exporters have leaned on hardest since the war began — the same side of the waterway where lakhs of Punjabi and Indian seafarers, port workers and other Gulf-based workers earn their living. An attack on the systems that steer tankers safely through a mined and contested strait raises the risk for every crew still using it, even when traffic itself keeps moving. Watch next for: any statement from US Central Command or Oman confirming or disputing the damage; maritime safety notices to shipping; and whether the ship-to-ship anchorages near Sohar and Fujairah see any pause. Until an official damage assessment lands, the scale of what was hit on Didamar stays unproven — the attack itself no longer is.