Iran Guards say cargo ship sank in Hormuz after hitting mine

UK agency says Singaporean-flagged ship hit by projectile and sank; unclear if two statements refer to same vessel

By AFP 14 October 2026, 11:37 pm

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A gull flies overhead as a boy stands with his bicycle on a beach overlooking commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, September 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

DUBAI, Emirates — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that a ship caught fire and sank in the Strait of Hormuz because of a mine, while British security firm Vanguard also reported a sinking.

“A container ship attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz using an unauthorized and dangerous shipping lane struck a mine that exploded,” said the navy of the IRGC, the Iranian paramilitary tasked with advancing the ideology of the 1979 revolution.

Images released by the Guards showed a plume of black smoke rising from a ship, while dozens of containers that had fallen into the sea floated on the water. The Guards said the ship was carrying more than 2,500 containers.

Iran claims control of the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s hydrocarbons passed before the Middle East war. It regularly targets ships it accuses of transiting without authorization, while the US has imposed its own blockade on Iran’s ports.

According to Vanguard, the GFS Pride, a Singapore-flagged container ship, was struck by a projectile on Tuesday and sank.

It was not clear if the two statements referred to the same ship.

The vessel lost this morning in the southern corridor of the Strait of Hormuz has been identified as the GFS PRIDE, a UAE-owned container ship. Its AIS had been switched off for the past 10 days. pic.twitter.com/NHIE98JamQ

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 14, 2026

Vanguard reported three other ships struck on Tuesday, with two of them continuing on their way and the fate of the third unknown.

The war was triggered in late February by US-Israeli strikes against Iran, which aimed to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.

A ceasefire in April and an interim deal in June have fallen apart, but a return to full-scale fighting has yet to occur.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.