Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says its naval mines stopped three oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, Oct. 20, but none of its statements names a ship, and the U.S. military calls Iran’s mine claims false. According to AFP, as published by Arab News, the Guards said in a statement on their official Sepah News website: “Two violating oil tankers were set ablaze and halted due to the explosion of mines planted by the brave sailors of the IRGC Navy at an illegal crossing point in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz.” Euronews carries a different English rendering of the same statement: “With the explosion of mines laid by the IRGC Navy in the illegal passage south of the Strait of Hormuz, two offending tankers were set on fire and brought to a standstill.” The earliest report this desk found, a Reuters item carried by A News (stamped 12:39 p.m. UTC+3, 2:39 a.m. PT), says the Guards’ navy put out the statement through state media “without saying when the tankers were hit.”

A third claim followed. AFP, via Arab News, says the Guards later said in a statement carried by state TV that a third oil tanker “exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz,” and that the tanker, “carrying over 2 million barrels of crude oil, had deactivated all of its radar and navigation systems.” gCaptain, citing Reuters, describes that one as a supertanker that the IRGC Navy says broke Iranian transit rules. Separately, Kurdistan24 reports that “Iran’s Navy” said it had identified a burning tanker in a restricted zone in the eastern part of the strait, quoting: “Today we identified a violating tanker that had caught fire in the restricted zone in the eastern Strait of Hormuz.” This desk cannot tell from the saved reports whether that announcement and the AFP third-tanker statement describe the same ship.

The Guards attached a warning. Xinhua says the IRGC statement called the route south of the waterway “illegal” and said crossing the mined path will result only in the burning of the “violators’ assets.” Al-Monitor, citing Iran’s official IRNA agency, gives the line as “Passing through the mined and illegal route will result in nothing but the burning of the offenders’ assets,” and says the IRGC also claimed its air defenses destroyed a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone overnight; Al-Monitor says it asked U.S. Central Command for comment. Euronews says a U.S. official, speaking to U.S. media, dismissed the drone claim as untrue.

Kurdistan24, in a story stamped 5:47 p.m. Erbil time (7:47 a.m. PT), quotes a CENTCOM spokesman: “Iranian claims that tankers are hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz are false,” and then, in a separate quote, “We have cleared the international waterways in the Strait of Hormuz of mines. Iran uses missiles and drones in its aggression in the Strait of Hormuz.” Newsquawk, at 15:00 UTC (8:00 a.m. PT), gives the first line as “Iran’s claims about oil tankers colliding with sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz are false.” This desk could not pin down whether the third-tanker statement came out before or after those quotes, and did not find the CENTCOM statement on a CENTCOM site or account.

The Joint Maritime Information Center’s Oct. 18 advisory note, published by the UK Maritime Trade Operations office, says: “On 17 Oct the IRGC Navy claimed that two supertankers had struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz; there is no substantiation to these claims.” The same note rates the Strait of Hormuz threat as SEVERE, tells mariners to stay alert for attempted mining in and near the traffic separation scheme, and counts 153 incidents since March 1. gCaptain notes that this assessment came out before Tuesday’s statements. DefenceMENA, writing on Oct. 19 about an IRGC claim from late Oct. 18, says: “No flag state, owner, insurer or crew has confirmed any of the incidents.”

UKMTO’s Advisory 178-26, the newest UKMTO tanker advisory this desk found, reports “an incident involving a tanker and military forces” at 10:00 UTC on Oct. 19, “approximately 121NM east of Duqm, Oman,” and says “Authorities are aware and relevant investigations remain ongoing.” Euronews says UKMTO reported no damage or casualties and did not identify the vessel. The advisory names no ship and links the incident to no mine. The IMO’s confirmed-incident list, which counts 116 confirmed incidents and 24 seafarer fatalities as of Oct. 20, lists the ST3 on Oct. 16 and the JIF BARRACUDA on Oct. 18 as its newest entries and gives no cause for either.

Reuters, in an Oct. 17 report carried by gCaptain, says the IRGC Navy reported two tankers on fire after hitting mines, each carrying about 2 million barrels per state media, and that “There was no independent confirmation of the reports.” gCaptain lists earlier IRGC mine claims on July 18, Aug. 31, Sept. 2, Oct. 10 and Oct. 12, and quotes CENTCOM after the Aug. 31 claim: “No ships have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz.” DefenceMENA, citing IranWire, renders that August denial as “no vessel has struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.” gCaptain also says an Oct. 14 Iranian mine claim appeared to describe the GFS Pride, which sank after an Oct. 13 attack, while JMIC’s Oct. 15 assessment found that ship “struck by an unknown projectile” and CENTCOM blamed an IRGC projectile.

gCaptain adds that a lack of confirmation does not show the waterway free of mines: in March, Reuters reported, citing two sources, that Iran had deployed approximately a dozen naval mines in the strait, and U.S. forces later carried out clearance work, per gCaptain. Elsewhere on Tuesday, Euronews reports that IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said the war has left about 6,000 seafarers stranded in the strait, and that Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said: “In practice we have shown that we absolutely do not leave any blow unanswered.” Still open as of this story: the names of any ships hit, any flag-state or owner statement, and a JMIC or UKMTO assessment covering Tuesday’s claims.