A third explosion in three nights was reported off the Musandam peninsula, and the newest entry in the Hormuz incident log is classed as an advisory rather than an attack
A tanker master heard an explosion.
That is the whole of what the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre has published about the incident it numbered 103-26, reported at 2037 UTC on Sunday 2 August and issued the same day. The position given is 20 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, on the Musandam peninsula that forms the southern shoulder of the Strait of Hormuz. The source is recorded as the master. UKMTO says the vessel and crew are all reported as safe, that authorities are investigating, and that vessels should transit with caution.
It is the third report from that stretch of water in three nights. The three are not the same kind of event, and the log is careful about the difference.
What the classifications say
Warning 101-26 is classed as an attack. It was reported at 2330 UTC on 31 July by a company security officer, issued on 1 August, and places a tanker 11 nautical miles northeast off Lima, Oman, struck by an unknown projectile that caused damage to the engine room. The tanker was left not under command and the regional coast guard was informed. No casualties. No environmental impact.
Warning 102-26 is also classed as an attack, timed to 2206 UTC on 31 July, at 21 nautical miles northeast of Khasab. There the master reported seeing a large splash and an explosion in close proximity to the vessel, and no damage to the vessel was reported.
Advisory 103-26 is the newest and the lightest. Nothing in it is recorded as having hit anything.
Read in order, the three sit within roughly twenty miles of one another off the same peninsula, across the nights of 31 July, 1 August and 2 August. Two of them were called in by the master of the vessel involved. One came through a company security officer ashore.
What the log does not carry
UKMTO attributes none of the three to anybody. The wording in each entry is that authorities are investigating, and the standing advice is to transit with caution and report suspicious activity. No vessel is named in any of the three.
The log is also not a survey of everything that happens at sea. Reports reach UKMTO through the master or through military authorities, so a ship outside the voluntary reporting scheme can generate no entry at all. An empty night in the log is weaker evidence than a full one.
The page carried 25 reports when it was read. Before the 31 July pair, the nearest entries were an advisory on 27 July in the southern Red Sea and a cluster in the second half of July: a tanker struck 8 nautical miles northeast of Limah on 20 July whose crew abandoned ship, a vessel with damaged steering gear 17 nautical miles east of Dibba on 19 July, and a vessel on fire 8 nautical miles northwest of Kumzar the same night.
This site reported on 2 August that Iran's foreign ministry had said the strait would under no circumstances return to its pre-war situation, and that President Trump had described an open Strait of Hormuz as a parameter of a deal rather than a term that has been agreed. Sunday night added one line to the log underneath both of those sentences.
