Iran's Navy said on Saturday, November 14, that an oil tanker caught fire and was immobilised after hitting a naval mine while sailing in a prohibited area east of the Strait of Hormuz despite previous warnings, Iranian state media reported. The Navy said the vessel had switched off its tracking and identification systems while transiting the unsafe zone. No name, flag or crew details for the tanker were given, no casualties were reported, and there was no independent confirmation of the incident.

Source: Press TV, Nov 14, 2026

In its statement, reported by Iran's state news agency ISNA, the Navy warned that any tanker entering the prohibited area would face the same fate. Its public relations department accused tanker owners of risking their assets by trusting US President Donald Trump: "It is regrettable that tanker owners, without learning from the fate of other rogue vessels, trusting the nonsense of the criminal US president, are sending their capital to the mine war and throwing it into the fire," the statement said, as reported by ISNA.

Source: ANI via ISNA, Nov 14, 2026

The Saturday statement came hours after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said late on Friday that two oil tankers attempting a covert, unauthorised transit through the southern Strait of Hormuz exploded and caught fire after hitting Iranian naval mines. The IRGC Navy's public relations office said the vessels had deliberately disabled their radar and Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to evade detection while navigating a prohibited route, and it identified one of the vessels as a supertanker.

Source: IANS via Sepah News, Nov 14, 2026

The IRGC also cautioned shipping companies against attempting to cross the strategic waterway without coordinating with its Traffic Control Centre and complying with the arrangements established by Iranian authorities, according to a statement reported by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

Source: ANI via IRIB, Nov 14, 2026

The two new statements extend a run of near-daily Iranian tanker claims in the strait this month. On Friday, Iran's Guards said an LNG tanker had struck a naval mine and exploded in the strait, and earlier in the week Tehran said two supertankers and then two more tankers had been disabled by mines on consecutive nights — each of those claims was also unaccompanied by vessel identities or independent confirmation.

Read the earlier incident in this series: Iran's Friday claim that an LNG tanker hit a mine in the strait. Iran Says LNG Tanker Hit Naval Mine and Exploded in Strait of Hormuz

Why the strait is closed, on Tehran's account

Iran has imposed restrictions on maritime movement through the waterway following the US-Israeli military campaign against the country, which began on February 28. Tehran maintains that vessels must obtain authorisation from Iranian authorities for safe passage, and that safe passage is barred to vessels belonging to or affiliated with Israel and the United States. The Strait of Hormuz is the transit corridor for roughly one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil, which is why any disruption there is watched closely by energy markets and by the large Indian and Punjabi workforce based across the Gulf states.

The latest ANI report also carried a separate, contested claim and counter-claim: Iran's assertion that its IRGC Aerospace Force destroyed a US early-warning radar installation in Bahrain was rejected by US Central Command (CENTCOM), which said US forces intercepted and shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones launched toward Bahrain, with no injuries or damage. Both accounts are the respective militaries' claims and neither has been independently verified.