Iran’s IRGC says three oil tankers struck mines in Strait of Hormuz

The IRGC's public claim of responsibility for mining the Strait of Hormuz, paired with an explicit threat to burn violators' assets, marks a shift from deniable harassment toward openly advertised coercion of commercial shipping. The direct warning that oil companies will "pay a heavier price" ties corporate assets to state-level retaliation, widening the risk beyond the vessels themselves. Whether insurers and charterers treat the strait as a sustained exclusion zone, and whether the IRGC's stated link to US actions produces further incidents, is the open question.