Madar (International) - Twelve vessels were attacked around the Strait of Hormuz between October 5 and 11, 2026, the largest weekly number of strikes reported to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency since the US-Israeli war with Iran began, according to an analysis of UKMTO reports published on Friday, October 16, by the BBC's fact-checking unit, BBC Verify.
Ten ships had reported attacks the previous week, and six were struck on Sunday, October 11, alone, a one-day high. They included the Nicaragua-flagged tanker Petro Dolphin, hit by a drone near Oman's Sohar Anchorage more than 250km from the strait, according to maritime intelligence firm Vanguard. The container ship GFS Pride sank on Tuesday, October 13, after being struck by an unknown projectile in the strait; its 21 crew were evacuated. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ship had been carrying "contraband" and had taken an "unauthorised route".
The surge has weighed on oil traffic. About 12.6 million barrels per day passed through the strait on October 13, down from 15 million at the end of September and a pre-war baseline of some 17 million, according to trade intelligence firm Kpler. Most Gulf oil now moves via a "shuttle" system of tankers hugging the Omani coast, a route Tehran calls "unauthorised", while Iranian exports have stalled completely under a US blockade of Iranian ports and ships.
US Navy data show the number of vessels given assistance to transit the strait in the first 10 days of October was up 85% on the same period in August, and US Central Command says commercial traffic continues with coordinated protection. Martin Kelly, chief executive of Orbital Risk Intelligence, told the BBC that Iran had "evolved its strategy" and was carrying out near-daily attacks aimed at stopping ships and deterring others, while widening its reach toward Gulf Arab coastlines and the Gulf of Oman.
In Mauritania, a member of parliament said in May 2026 that the Hormuz crisis had exposed the fragility of the national economy, and on August 9, 2026, Nouakchott condemned an attack on an Emirati oil tanker in the strait and called for the safety of maritime navigation to be guaranteed, as Madar reported at the time.
