Iran's IRGC Navy struck two commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz in the early hours of July 7, including the Qatari LNG carrier Al Rekayyat (Nakilat), hit ~8 nautical miles east of Limah, Oman while outbound on the southern corridor. The vessel took a port-side hit, engine room fire and smoke; crew safe, no casualties, no pollution reported. UKMTO confirmed the incident directly. Iranian state TV (IRIB) confirmed an attack occurred, saying the tanker crossed "the Omani route... with US Navy support" and was struck "after ignoring repeated warnings," short of an explicit claim of responsibility. The direct IRGC attribution comes from anonymous US officials (via WSJ, Axios), not from Iran's own statements.
This is the first confirmed hit on an LNG carrier since the war began Feb 28, a distinct escalation: LNG tonnage had been the one asset class largely spared direct fire through 129 days of crisis. It lands the same day NATO foreign ministers met Gulf Arab counterparts in Ankara specifically on Hormuz maritime security, the summit that was weighing whether to convert the UK/France mine-clearance mission into a longer-term NATO-led operation.
A separate, single-sourced claim that Iran also declared the strait formally "closed" is not wire-confirmed. It mirrors a June 20 episode in which an near-identical IRGC closure claim was contradicted within hours by Iran's own Foreign Ministry, and operational reporting indicates fragmented traffic continued on both the Iran-approved northern corridor and the US-managed Oman southern route after this strike.
Key watches: (1) primary confirmation or denial of the closure claim from Iran's Foreign Ministry; (2) NATO Ankara summit outcome on Hormuz, concludes July 8; (3) Lloyd's/JWC listing changes for LNG tonnage specifically; (4) any Qatari government or Nakilat statement; (5) Brent/European gas price reaction at next print.