Iran says it targeted gas tanker in Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they had attacked a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

The LPG tanker NV Sunshine came under fire in the strategic waterway, the powerful military institution said in a statement carried by Iran's Tasnim news agency.

According to the report, the vessel was travelling along a southern shipping route near the coast of Oman.

In recent months, the US Navy has been escorting civilian merchant vessels with their transponders switched off along the route in an effort to restore oil and gas shipments.

Iran, which has sought to tighten control over the strait, considers the route "illegal" and demands that ships instead pass along the Iranian coast.

"Any ship using an unauthorized transit route will be pursued throughout the region, and its punishment will be inevitable," Tasnim quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO also reported an incident near the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Friday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear whether the two reports referred to the same incident.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy trade, has been the scene of repeated attacks on shipping during the war between Iran and the United States.