Two Filipino sailors have been killed after a Saudi oil tanker came under attack in the Strait of Hormuz, sharply escalating tensions around the strategic waterway as Iran and the United States exchange fresh strikes across the Gulf region.
Bahri, the Saudi-owned shipping company, confirmed on Wednesday that the two crew members were killed aboard its tanker, Sidr, after the vessel was struck while attempting to leave the Persian Gulf late Monday.
The deaths have prompted Saudi Arabia to formally accuse Iran of targeting the tanker and condemn attacks that it said threaten maritime navigation and global energy supplies.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said it rejected any attacks that endanger “the security and safety of maritime navigation and global energy supplies”, although Riyadh has not indicated that it plans military retaliation.
The incident has nevertheless increased the stakes for Saudi Arabia, as the deaths occurred aboard a vessel operated by the kingdom’s state shipping company at a time when Iranian and US forces are engaged in renewed military confrontation.
The Sidr was one of two supertankers struck near Oman late Monday as the vessels attempted to exit the Persian Gulf. At the time, UK Maritime Trade Operations reported that a tanker had been hit by three unidentified projectiles, with no casualties initially reported.
The latest development also comes against a backdrop of sharply reduced shipping through Hormuz. Preliminary Kpler data cited by Reuters showed that only four commodity vessels crossed the Strait on Tuesday, down from 10 on Monday and a 10-day average of about 13 vessels.
The attack on Sidr is also part of a wider series of incidents involving Bahri vessels. The tanker is the fourth Bahri vessel to have been attacked since June.
The Wedyan supertanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in August, while Bahri vessels Amzan and Masa were attacked in the Red Sea after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia.
Military tensions intensified further on Wednesday after Iran launched missiles and drones at US military facilities in Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The Iranian strikes followed US attacks a day earlier on Iranian air-defence systems, radar installations, maritime assets and capabilities linked to mine-laying operations.
US President Donald Trump subsequently said Washington now had “almost total control of the Hormuz Strait” and warned that any further Iranian retaliation would trigger a US response “at a much harder and higher level.”
The combination of the tanker deaths, attacks on commercial shipping and renewed military exchanges has heightened the risks surrounding one of the world’s most important energy corridors.
The sharp decline in vessel movements through the Strait indicates that the security crisis is already affecting maritime traffic, while the killing of crew members aboard the Saudi tanker adds a human cost to the escalating confrontation.