The Marshall Islands-flagged Velos Sapphire, a 74,998 dwt product tanker managed by Athens-based Velos Tankers, was struck about 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar. UK Maritime Trade Operations initially reported two unidentified projectiles hitting the tanker at 23:20 UTC, and the operator reported an explosion on the aft port side believed to have been caused by a missile. The International Maritime Organization identified the vessel and recorded damage, no pollution and one seafarer missing; a fire on board was extinguished, and the tanker, which had left Fujairah on November 3 for Sitra, Bahrain, continued towards Bahrain under its own power.
The Joint Maritime Information Center recorded four attacks in the strait in its latest 96-hour period, concentrated off Oman’s Musandam peninsula between November 1 and 3, and two further attacks inside the Arabian Gulf, and still classifies the threat around Hormuz as severe. AIS monitoring counted nine commercial crossings on Thursday, a seven-day average of about nine a day against roughly 85 before the conflict.