Attack on vessel in Strait of Hormuz

Two separate vessels were struck in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend of September 12-13 amid the ongoing US-Iran war. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) reported late Saturday that an unidentified vessel had been hit by an unknown projectile while transiting the strait, sparking a fire and prompting evacuation of crew members; UKMTO did not identify the vessel's flag or say who fired the projectile. Separately, Iranian state media reported that an Iranian commercial vessel was struck near Qeshm Island early Sunday, killing one person and injuring four others; Iran's IRNA news agency quoted the Qeshm governor blaming a 'terrorist enemy,' though the US did not immediately comment. The strikes came a day before Iran's foreign minister was set to meet Gulf Arab diplomats in Oman to discuss managing shipping traffic through the strait, a meeting Bahrain said it would skip; traffic through the waterway, which once carried about 20 million barrels of oil daily, remained roughly 90% below pre-conflict levels amid the US naval blockade.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the strait would reopen only if the US ended its blockade, while a senior Iranian parliamentary security official said dialogue was 'of no use' unless the US accepted all of Iran's conditions. Inside Iran, the rial fell to a record low of roughly 2.3 million per US dollar amid worsening fuel shortages; Tehran doubled gasoline prices for drivers exceeding a 110-liter monthly quota after cutting subsidies, triggering strikes among taxi, delivery and truck drivers in cities including Kerman and Bandar Abbas, with drivers for ride-share firm Snapp saying, 'We've all stopped; no one is working.'