Two Saudi oil tankers attacked in Strait of Hormuz

Two large Saudi oil-laden tankers came under attack in the Strait of Hormuz, according to maritime risk management firm Mareskix and ship-tracking company Kepler. The companies reported that unidentified projectiles struck the two outbound tankers late Tuesday night within minutes of each other. Mareskix said the near-simultaneous incidents signaled a further escalation in the threat environment for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. According to Kepler data, each tanker had loaded about two million barrels of Saudi crude at Jubail port over the past week. Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco had resumed loading and sale operations inside the Strait of Hormuz in August after a pause that began during the Iran-Israel war. The company has not publicly commented on the latest attack. No casualties or spills have been confirmed. The flag states, ownership details of the vessels and the origin of the projectiles remain undisclosed. The strait, through which roughly a fifth of global oil trade passes, has seen a string of vessel attacks since the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June, though most have been attributed to Iran-backed Houthi forces operating from Yemen, not inside the waterway itself. No further details were immediately available.