A tanker was struck by an “unknown projectile” as it headed into the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said on Monday. Two crew members also sustained minor injuries in the incident.
The UKMTO said that the vessel is reportedly continuing to its next port of call under its own power. No reports indicated any environmental impact at this time.
Tehran has asserted control over much of the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28. In peacetime, about 20 million barrels -- roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply -- passed through Hormuz each day.
Some tankers are again traversing the strait, but traffic is well below what it once was.
Other key developments related to the situation in West Asia are:
Israeli military on guard on Jewish faith's holiest day
Israel's military remained on alert even as the country woke up to the silence and empty streets of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, considered the holiest day for the Jewish faith.
Streetlights blinked yellow Monday as the faithful walked to the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.
“For the next 25 hours, Israel is offline,” the foreign ministry said on X after sundown Sunday.
But the military said it bolstered its frontline forces following the killing of an Israeli settler on Sunday in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian suspect was detained after a manhunt.
France denounces shutting down of French language centre in Tehran
France says it will summon Iran's ambassador to protest over the closure of a French language centre affiliated with the French Embassy in Tehran.
The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Sunday that Paris would “take appropriate measures in response” but didn't specify. It's also unclear when the Iranian ambassador would be summoned.
The ministry called the “unjustifiable and unacceptable” closure of the language centre a new attack on France's cultural presence in Iran and linked it to an assault on two French Embassy staff members in July.
