BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 4. Four oil tankers
attempting to pass through a prohibited zone south of the Strait of
Hormuz have been destroyed after hitting a naval mine since last
night, and the vessels are still burning, according to Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The IRGC said that the movement of two vessels attempting to
pass illegally through the Strait of Hormuz has also been
halted.
Furthermore, according to reports, a U.S.-owned MQ-9 unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) was shot down in the airspace over the Strait
of Hormuz. This marks the 56th UAV of this type to be downed by the
Air Defense Forces of the IRGC.
The event marks a fresh escalation in U.S.-Iran hostilities that
flared on July 8, when U.S. forces launched airstrikes against
targets in Iran, the first since a bilateral memorandum was signed,
in retaliation for an earlier attack on a commercial vessel in the
strait. Following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement
terminating the ceasefire, Tehran retaliated with strikes on U.S.
facilities across Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and
Omani territory. The ongoing conflict has effectively brought
commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to a standstill.
