[Breaking] The Royal Navy’s maritime security tracking office, UK Maritime Trade Operations, has released a report of a significant vessel attack in the middle of the Arabian Gulf – hundreds of miles from the Strait of Hormuz, the region affected most by the U.S.-Iran conflict.
At about 1900 hours UTC, the master of a tanker reported that the vessel was “struck by multiple projectiles” at a position about 50 nm to the north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar. The name of the vessel has not yet been released, as is UKMTO’s practice in initial reports.
Casualties have been reported in the incident and the authorities are currently investigation, UKMTO said.
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It is the first reported tanker attack in the western half of the Arabian Gulf in weeks. U.S. military airborne security patrols have been active in the southern reaches of the Strait of Hormuz, defending a narrow maritime corridor with some success, but American forces have only a limited presence to the west of the waterway – rendering tankers transiting off Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar comparatively vulnerable. The U.S. Navy no longer maintains an operationally significant presence in Manama, Bahrain, former home of U.S. Fifth Fleet, and there are no U.S. surface combatants operating west of Hormuz. On land, U.S. air and ground forces have been drawn down at bases around the region due to the threat of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as details emerge.