An Indian seafarer has been killed and eight other crew injured after Iran struck two UAE-flagged tankers with cruise missiles in the southern Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, within Omani territorial waters, as the US moved to reimpose its blockade of Iranian ports and charge for Hormuz transits.
The UAE Ministry of Defence said the tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah were hit while transiting the strait. One Indian crewmember died aboard Mombasa; of the eight injured, four were serious, comprising six Indian and two Ukrainian nationals. Fires broke out on both vessels and have since been brought under control.
The strike landed hours before the US resumes its blockade of Iranian ports from 2000 GMT on July 14, US Naval Forces Central Command said. Vessels suspected of carrying contraband will be subject to the belligerent right to visit and search regardless of location, and ships attempting to dodge the blockade through ship-to-ship transfers will also be liable to boarding.
President Donald Trump added a commercial twist to the announcement, posting on Truth Social that the US would become “the Guardian of the Hormuz Strait” and would seek reimbursement equivalent to 20% of the value of all cargo shipped through the waterway to cover security costs. The proposal sits uneasily alongside Washington’s own repeated insistence that its naval presence in the Gulf exists to defend freedom of navigation rather than to monetise it.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, mocked the plan on X, writing that Iran had “always been the Guardian of the Strait and will remain so forever,” adding that 20% was “of course too much” and that Tehran “will be fair.” Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva separately criticised the toll proposal as amounting to “piracy.”
The duelling toll claims are not new. Iran has for some time been preparing to impose its own charges on vessels transiting the strait. Trump’s 20% charge is approximately $33m for a VLCC cargo at today’s crude prices, more than 1,500% higher than the mooted $2m toll Tehran has proposed.
The attack on Mombasa and Al Bahiyah is the latest in a string of strikes on commercial shipping in the strait. On July 11 the containership GFS Galaxy caught fire after being hit off the Omani coast; the crew abandoned ship and all but one, still missing, were rescued. During an earlier phase of the US blockade in June, a strike on the products tanker Settebello on June 9 killed three seafarers.<
Elsewhere, US Central Command disclosed using one-way attack drones in combat for the first time, taking a leaf out of the Ukrainian and Houthi playbooks, striking a pier and a submarine gantry at Bandar Abbas port on Sunday with armed Saronic Corsair unmanned boats.
Separately, the Financial Times reported that DP World is planning a new port and container terminal on the UAE’s east coast at Fujairah, designed to bypass the strait entirely and reduce Dubai’s reliance on Jebel Ali. Fujairah sits on the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz, giving the UAE an alternative maritime gateway if traffic through the strait is disrupted by military action, blockades, toll disputes or rising war risk.
Finally, at the UN Security Council, US deputy ambassador Tammy Bruce accused Iran of flying Revolutionary Guards personnel into Yemen under cover of Houthi delegations, warning: “If Iran shoots at ships, we will immediately respond with force.” The Iranian-backed Houthis exchanged missile attacks with Saudi Arabia yesterday, something that shipping will need to keep an eye on as the 1,000th day of the Red Sea shipping crisis approaches.
