Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed on Thursday that seven commercial vessels were struck overnight in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, including four ships conducting oil transfers, prompting President Donald Trump to accuse Tehran of fabricating attacks to drive up oil prices ahead of the US midterm elections, gCaptain reported.

Source: gCaptain (Reuters)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said four vessels conducting ship-to-ship oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were struck simultaneously on Wednesday and caught fire, gCaptain reported, citing Reuters. The vessels were allegedly transferring oil for an American company using routes Iran considers illegal. In a separate claim, the IRGC said three additional vessels struck naval mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, causing fires that left them disabled, and it warned the US military that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against its regional bases, ProfiloPolitics reported.

None of the seven incidents has been independently confirmed. Iran did not identify the ships, their owners or the American company allegedly involved, and there were no immediate details about casualties or potential oil spills, gCaptain reported. UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which tracks attacks on commercial shipping in the region, has not issued new incident reports corresponding to the claims. A US Central Command spokesperson, speaking to Al Jazeera, called Iran's mine claims incorrect and said US forces have cleared the international shipping lanes of mines, while Iran is using missiles and drones, ProfiloPolitics reported.

The claims are the latest in a series of IRGC announcements alleging that merchant vessels using routes outside Tehran's control have struck mines or been hit, and those announcements have repeatedly been challenged. In an October 18 advisory, the Joint Maritime Information Center said there was “no substantiation” to Iran's claim a day earlier that two supertankers had struck mines, gCaptain reported, and Central Command has previously accused the IRGC of spreading disinformation to intimidate commercial shipping.

At the same time, the absence of UKMTO reports does not necessarily mean the attacks did not occur. In its October 16 weekly assessment, UKMTO acknowledged it was struggling to establish the true number of attacks because the majority of vessels targeted were not reporting incidents directly, gCaptain reported. UKMTO documented 12 attacks in the period ending October 16, 10 of them in the Strait of Hormuz, with one vessel lost, and it continues to rate the threat level in the strait as severe, ProfiloPolitics reported.

Oil prices rose as the claims circulated, with Brent crude climbing nearly 3 percent to about $112 a barrel on Thursday, ProfiloPolitics reported. The International Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that tanker freight costs from the Middle East Gulf to Asia had climbed above $37 per barrel, more than five times prewar levels — yaani, for a fully loaded 2-million-barrel very large crude carrier, more than $74 million (about 7.4 crore dollars) in freight costs alone, gCaptain reported.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that “no commercial ships should be attacked” and called for diplomacy to reopen the strait and lower tensions, ProfiloPolitics reported. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Wednesday that Tehran remains open to diplomacy but is ready to defend itself, the report said. For now, neither Tehran's claim that seven vessels were attacked nor Trump's assertion that the incidents were fabricated has been independently established, gCaptain reported.