Khasab2 limpet mines disabled a tanker in Hormuz Thursday.
US Central Command said Friday that the strait’s primary routes are cleared of mines.
A small boat attached two mines to the hull, setting the engine room ablaze, then withdrew, three maritime security sources assessed.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say 3 tankers on unauthorised routes met incidents, and nobody has named who placed the mines.
The US military, which coaches tankers through the strait, has not confirmed the attack.
How each outlet framed it
- Al-Monitor leans critical
- reads the attack as a possible IRGC tactical shift and sets it against Pentagon claims of a cleared strait
- Reuters
- Al Jazeera Online leans critical
- carries the IRGC's claim that the three halted tankers were carrying oil and that one was a supertanker with over two million barrels
- Mehr News Agency leans critical
- reproduces the IRGC Navy's version that tankers switched off navigation systems and sailed with 'US terrorist army' support, blaming the fires on the tankers' disregard of Iranian rules
Sources: Al-Monitor, Reuters, Al Jazeera Online, Mehr News Agency