The Strait has not been sealed completely. BBC Verify said a small number of vessels were still moving through the waterway on Monday, although several changed course and others stopped transmitting their positions.
Only six ships crossed the Strait on Sunday, the lowest daily total in five weeks, according to Kpler data reported by Reuters. No LNG carriers were detected entering the waterway over the weekend.
The latest escalation began with an attack on the Cyprus-flagged container ship GFS Galaxy near Oman. The vessel suffered engine-room damage and caught fire, leaving it unable to continue under its own power. Ten Indian crew members were rescued, while one remained missing.
Iran said the ship had used an unauthorised route. The United States described the incident as an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and responded with strikes on Iranian military targets.
Ships reverse course as traffic thins out
Ship-tracking data reviewed by BBC Verify showed that the Wilmot and Seafaith reversed course before later resuming their journeys towards the Gulf of Oman. Two other vessels, the Evalovia and Aisana, stopped broadcasting their locations after appearing to head out of the Strait.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also claimed that it fired warning shots at two unidentified vessels and forced them to stop. The ships were not named, and the claim has not been independently verified.
Washington insists that a route close to Oman remains open, but the collapse in traffic shows that commercial passage is already severely disrupted.
