Iran says three tankers caught fire after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz

Iran's navy said three oil tankers caught fire on Saturday after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The reports, carried by Iranian state media, could not immediately be independently verified. One tanker was said to have hit a mine in the eastern part of the strait that morning, while two others were reported struck later in the day.

The Revolutionary Guards Navy alleged that the two tankers in the later incident had tried to pass through a prohibited route, hit mines, exploded and caught fire. Iran has restricted passage through the waterway and has attacked ships it accuses of breaching those restrictions, seeking control over the route and leverage against the United States. The Iranian account does not establish independently what happened to the vessels or who laid the mines.

Gulf security and missile assessments

Separately, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two suspected Houthi drones in the Riyadh and southern regions on Saturday. Early on Sunday its spokesman said two ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh had also been destroyed. The missile announcement therefore came on a different day from Saturday's tanker reports; the coalition attributed the launches to Yemen's Houthis.

A separate US newspaper report, citing American officials, said intelligence agencies estimated that Iran retained between 1,500 and 2,500 missiles. Officials described this as a low-confidence assessment because it is difficult to establish how many weapons are ready to launch or held in storage. They nevertheless said Iran retained substantial capacity, and that rebuilding its missile inventory had featured in US deliberations over renewed strikes. The estimate remains a reported intelligence assessment, not an independently verified count.