The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations on Tuesday said it received a report that a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting outbound in the Strait of Hormuz, causing engine room damage and a crew casualty.

The agency did not elaborate on the nature of the reported casualty.

The Omani Coast Guard was assisting remaining crew, and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said, adding that there was no environmental damage.

The incident comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, with vessel crossings still in the single digits, down from more than 130 on February 27, the day before Israel and the US launched the war on Iran in a bid to destroy its nuclear program.

Iran blockaded the strait early in the war, choking off about 20% of the world’s commercial oil shipments and sparking a global rise in energy prices.

In July, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels joined with their own naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.

Amid a stalemate in US-Iran peace talks, preliminary shipping data on Tuesday showed that the previous day’s crossings in the Strait of Hormuz were still in single digits, despite rising slightly from the........

© The Times of Israel