Iranian state television reported on Sunday that an oil tanker was targeted and is currently sinking while attempting to cross the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The television station reported that the tanker, which it described as "in violation," was targeted while attempting to illegally cross the strait, indicating that its fate was to sink, without providing further immediate details about the identity of the ship or its crew.
The official channel broadcast footage showing plumes of thick black smoke rising from the burning tanker at sea, indicating the extent of the damage it sustained.
This incident comes in the context of the Iranian response to the American-Israeli attack that targeted the capital, Tehran, on Saturday, and resulted in the death of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the report.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had issued a prior warning on Saturday, announcing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic, claiming that the vital waterway had become unsafe as a result of what it described as American and Israeli attacks.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for the global economy, through which about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil supplies pass, in addition to a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas shipments.
