UPDATE, OCTOBER 14: Iran has changed the pace and methods of attacks on commercial shipping around the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters, as maritime reporting documented at least five incidents involving tankers and other merchant vessels in 48 hours.

The new accounts add operational details and a fresh wave of incidents to the risks reported last week. They do not establish responsibility for every individual strike, and neither Iran's Foreign Ministry nor the Pentagon provided an on-the-record response to Reuters.

Officials describe a shift in targeting

Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran began using different tactics against vessels it considered to be violating its restrictions about 10 days earlier. They said the strategy was intended to frustrate U.S.-led efforts to lower oil prices before the November 3 midterm elections and would extend operations beyond the strait into the Gulf of Oman and surrounding waters.

A U.S. military official, also speaking anonymously, said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was using unarmed spotters in small boats after U.S. strikes damaged much of Iran's radar capability. The official described one incident in which a dhow was allegedly used to identify targets before U.S. forces confronted and destroyed the vessel after its occupants abandoned it. Reuters reported no casualties in that encounter.

These are source-based claims from officials on opposing sides of an active conflict. The publicly available material reviewed by The Northern Current does not independently verify the officials' stated motives or every operational detail.

Five incidents reported in 48 hours

Reuters counted at least five incidents involving commercial vessels around Hormuz during the previous 48 hours, including drone strikes, based on maritime-security analysis and reports to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency.

UKMTO's public notices include three time-late reports issued October 12 for merchant ships struck by unknown projectiles during October 11 transits. Its site also records an October 10 report of an outbound tanker struck on its port side, causing a fire; the crew was reported safe.

The International Maritime Organization listed 100 confirmed incidents in the wider Strait of Hormuz and Middle East area as of October 9, with 24 confirmed seafarer deaths. That official total predates the most recent reports and does not assign responsibility in the brief incident table.

Risk area broadens

Maritime-security sources told Reuters that attacks had appeared beyond the strait, including waters off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. That broadening is consistent with the October 8 strike on the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged chemical tanker Acers north of Qatar, which was already covered in this article.

The U.S. Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center assessed the threat to merchant shipping as severe in its latest Sunday report, Reuters said. Iranian officials told the news agency that vessels violating Tehran's restrictions would not be safe outside the strait and that Iran was moving toward what one official called a complete closure. Those statements are threats and stated intentions, not confirmation that the waterway has closed.

Why it matters in Canada

Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz carried about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied-natural-gas trade. More frequent attacks, wider operating areas and elevated insurance costs can affect global energy and freight prices, with potential consequences for Canadian consumers and businesses. No direct Canadian shipping disruption or new Canadian government measure was announced in the sources reviewed for this update.

Sources: Reuters, October 14; United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations incident notices, October 10–12; International Maritime Organization confirmed-incident list, updated through October 9; Reuters, October 8.

Lead image: map of the Strait of Hormuz by Goran_tek-en via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, using OpenStreetMap data under ODbL; map, not an image of the reported attacks.