00:21A tanker just got hit. Explosion on the hull, fuel leaking into the water, 60 miles off Oman,
00:29right at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. No group has claimed responsibility, but given what's
00:35been happening in these waters over the last three months, this is not a random incident.
00:40This is the 38th attack since late February, and the question everyone is asking right now,
00:47was it Iran? Early Tuesday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre, the body that monitors
00:55commercial shipping in the region, issued emergency warning 062-26 after a tanker captain reported an
01:03external explosion on the port side of his vessel near the waterline. The crew is safe, the ship is
01:10still afloat, but fuel has spilled into the water, and the vessel has taken damage from what is clearly
01:16an external strike. This wasn't an onboard accident. UKMTO is urging all ships in the Gulf of Oman to
01:24exercise extreme caution while the investigation is ongoing. So what actually caused the explosion?
01:31Experts are pointing to two main possibilities. Martin Kelly from EOS Risk Group says it could be
01:38an uncrewed surface vessel, essentially a remote-controlled boat packed with explosives, or a
01:44limpet mine, a magnetic device attached to the hull by divers or a small craft. Both methods have been
01:51used before in these waters. Both point toward state or state-backed actors. Others are raising the
01:58possibility of IRGC-laid sea mines. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has a long history of mining operations
02:06in the Gulf going back to the 1980s. No group has claimed this attack, no footage has emerged, and no
02:14government has officially attributed it yet. To understand why this matters, you need context.
02:20The Strait of Hormuz is the single most important oil choke point on Earth. One-fifth of all global
02:27oil flows through it. Any sustained disruption there doesn't just affect the Middle East, it hits energy
02:33prices worldwide within days. This explosion, whoever is behind it, is another data point in a campaign
02:41of maritime pressure that is very much still active. A tanker hit, fuel in the water, attack number 38,
02:49and no one claiming it. Yet.
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