The force also says it seized 2 additional tankers attempting a route it called prohibited. The BBC says it has not independently verified the claims, which follow renewed US strikes on Iran.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday, 4 November, that 4 oil tankers had been destroyed after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz. It said 2 of those vessels were still burning and 2 additional tankers had been seized while attempting what it described as a prohibited southern route.
The BBC relayed the account from the semi-official Tasnim news agency and explicitly said it had not independently verified the IRGC’s claim. The vessels' identities, flags, operators, casualties and actual condition remain unconfirmed.
The IRGC had also said that three tankers were destroyed by mines early on Tuesday. Whether that earlier claim overlaps Wednesday’s account remains unclear; the two counts cannot be treated as an established combined toll.
The BBC also reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have shot down an MQ-9 drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February triggered the conflict. Iran closed Hormuz in response, and talks to end the conflict have been stalled for months.
US officials said the US military launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday. According to the BBC, the strikes on Qeshm were in response to IRGC fire on a US aircraft.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told parliament on Tuesday that Iran would not surrender and that responsibility for preventing war lay with the US. President Masoud Pezeshkian said his government had sought a resolution through dialogue and warned that no one would benefit if fighting restarted. US President Donald Trump told CBS News that the conflict would end “when I say it ends.”
The International Maritime Organization says seafarers remain stranded aboard vessels unable to exit Hormuz. Its voluntary plan to evacuate merchant ships confined within the Gulf region is paused.
Iran says it will reopen the strait only if the US agrees to demands in its peace plan. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said this week that the seven-step plan had been condensed and could be implemented in two days if the US agreed.
Abraham Teklu Lemma admitted sharing dozens of classified documents and photographs with senior Ethiopian officials, the Justice Department said. His plea agreement provides for up to 22 years in prison if the court accepts it.
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Klobuchar won more than 55% of the vote, becoming Minnesota’s first elected woman governor and will succeed Tim Walz.
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The Ranya center is the 18th Armath workshop established abroad, and its local instructors have completed training in programming and robotics.
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