Evidence

This claim refers to the Panama-flagged oil tanker El Gaia incident in the Strait of Hormuz, part of the escalating Iran-US/Gulf conflict reported in September 2026. Iran's IRGC (via Fars/IRNA) stated the tanker caught fire after striking naval mines while attempting to transit a restricted area. US Central Command (CENTCOM) publicly rejected this on social media (X/Twitter) and in press statements, calling the mine claim 'FALSE' and asserting that El Gaia had been struck by an Iranian missile the prior month, rendering it inoperable, and then hit again by an Iranian drone while sitting off the coast of Oman. This dueling narrative was independently reported by multiple outlets, including The Statesman, gcaptain, Gulf News, ANI, investinglive, Jerusalem Post, and Israel National News, all describing the same two competing accounts consistent with the claim as worded. I did not find any published investigation from Reuters Fact Check, AFP Fact Check, Bellingcat, or EUvsDisinfo specifically adjudicating which version (mines vs. missile/drone) is factually correct; the only 'fact-check'-style framing found was CENTCOM's own 'CLAIM / FACT' social media post, which is a party to the dispute rather than an independent verifier.