IRGC says tanker caught fire after hitting mines in Strait of Hormuz

BREAKING: A liquefied gas carrier has caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting naval mines, Iran's Revolutionary Guards say, adding the vessel ignored warnings and tried to navigate an unauthorised route.

A liquefied gas carrier is on fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards say the tanker struck naval mines, and these pictures show the vessel burning out on the water, smoke visible from miles away. According to the IRGC, the ship ignored warnings and tried to take an unauthorised route through the strait.

That account comes from one side only, and it is worth saying plainly that the mines in question are Iranian. The strait handles roughly a fifth of the world's oil and gas shipments, and it is now a waterway where Tehran says it decides which routes are authorised. Just yesterday we reported Iranian drones fired at a US radar site in Bahrain, home of the Fifth Fleet.

A gas carrier burning in the world's most important energy chokepoint is no longer a warning sign. It is the event itself.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.