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Iran says two tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz as ship attacks reach a record

The Revolutionary Guard says both vessels were carrying about two million barrels of crude and had switched off their tracking systems. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 09:35

An oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, seen from the US Navy frigate USS Taylor in this public-domain file photo. Iran said two tankers caught fire after hitting mines in the waterway in October 2026. US Navy / National Archives and Records Administration (public domain)

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, each carrying about two million barrels of crude oil.

The first vessel hit a mine, setting off an explosion and a "fierce fire", the IRGC said, while a second was engulfed in a "massive blaze", according to the official IRNA news agency. IRNA said both ships had switched off their positioning and radar systems and used a route Iran had not authorised. The IRGC claimed one tanker tried to cross the waterway "with US support".

There was no independent confirmation of the reports, and the names of the vessels and the origin of their cargo were not immediately known.

The incident adds to a sharp rise in attacks around the waterway. BBC Verify, citing data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency, said 12 vessels reported being attacked between 5 and 11 October - the largest weekly total since the US-Israeli war with Iran began in late February. Six of those ships were hit on 5 October alone, a one-day high.

Oil shipments through the strait have slowed as the strikes have mounted. About 12.6 million barrels a day passed through on 13 October, down from some 15 million at the end of September and a pre-war baseline of about 17 million, according to the trade intelligence firm Kpler.

Iran took control of the strait after the war began and now requires ships to seek its permission before transiting; the United States has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian oil exports. This week the IRGC's naval commander, Rear Admiral Ali Azmaei, warned that any vessel that switched off its navigation systems would be treated as "hostile".

About a fifth of the world's oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war. The disruption has pushed up global energy prices and inflation, with knock-on costs for importing countries such as Bangladesh.

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Trump mocks the name 'Mohammad' while joking about Iran at a Georgia rally

The US president told a campaign crowd to 'just say Mohammad' if unsure of a Middle Eastern name, drawing criticism from Muslim advocacy groups.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 10:32Open this article

US President Donald Trump. Official portrait by Daniel Torok, released into the public domain. Daniel Torok, The White House

US President Donald Trump made a joke about the popularity of the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran's presidency during a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, on 16 October, ahead of the 3 November midterm elections.

"You know, if you're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say 'Mohammad,'" Trump told the crowd in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport. "You have about a 65% chance. 'Hello, Mohammad.' I've done it for years now. I've never been wrong."

Mohammad is one of the most common male names among Muslims, who often name their sons after the Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.

After telling the crowd that "Iran is the only country where nobody wants to be president", Trump pretended to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job. Masoud Pezeshkian has been Iran's president since 2024. The Georgia crowd gave the joke a muted response.

Rights advocates and Muslim advocacy groups criticised the remarks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose annual report this year attributed rising Islamophobia in the United States in part to Trump's crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests, has repeatedly faulted his rhetoric. He has intensified such comments during the midterm campaign season, particularly against Muslim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, who came to the US as a Somali refugee.

Trump also repeated his vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Tehran aimed in part at crippling its nuclear programme.

NEXT STORY Business

Bangladesh cuts subsidised rice and flour targets as safety-net spending shifts

The Open Market Sale programme will target 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour this year, down from last year's sales, while its subsidy falls by Tk 685 crore.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 10:32Open this article

Kalijira, a Bangladeshi rice variety. The government sells subsidised rice through Open Market Sale outlets. Photo: Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons

Bangladesh has lowered its targets for selling subsidised rice and flour to low-income households through the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme, after the government cut the scheme's subsidy for the current fiscal year.

Food Ministry data presented at the first meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry on 15 October set an OMS target of 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour for FY27, The Business Standard reported. In FY26 the government sold 304,000 tonnes of rice and 449,000 tonnes of flour.

The subsidy allocation for OMS was cut by Tk 685 crore to Tk 3,411 crore, down from Tk 4,096 crore a year earlier. A Food Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the allocation was adjusted as part of wider changes to social safety-net spending and that the decision was not final; more funds could be provided if needed.

Under the programme, rice sells at Tk 30 a kilogram, loose flour at Tk 24 a kilogram and a two-kilogram packet of flour at Tk 55, through 1,125 outlets run by dealers nationwide. The government has also stopped selling rice through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh this year, after offering it at subsidised prices last year.

The move follows an existing slide in subsidised distribution. Food ministry data show the government distributed 7.55 lakh tonnes of grain in July-September of FY27, down 7 percent year on year, with OMS sales falling 22 percent to 2.05 lakh tonnes, The Daily Star reported.

Economists warned that the timing is difficult for poor households. "In view of inflation, food distribution should have been increased. We see the opposite," said Nazneen Ahmed, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue. Selim Raihan of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling said cutting food distribution at such a time risks worsening food insecurity and indebtedness.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh data around mid-October put medium-quality rice at Tk 56-65 a kilogram in Dhaka, while market visits found coarse and medium varieties had risen by Tk 1-2 a kilogram over the previous week.

Pressure on households remains high. September's 12-month average inflation was 8.65 percent, and the World Bank says about 6.2 crore people are one economic shock away from poverty, with national poverty projected to rise to 22.5 percent in 2026. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has projected that about 1.81 crore people would face acute food insecurity between September and December.