DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Armed men boarded a Hong Kong-flagged tanker ship Tuesday off the coast of Iran near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, holding the ship for a short time before releasing it amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the seizure, though suspicion fell on Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Iranian officials and state media did not acknowledge the incident and the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet did not respond to a request for comment.
The incident comes after a private maritime intelligence firm warned of suspicious incidents in recent days near the strait, through which a fifth of all oil is traded. Oil tankers previously have been a target during the tensions.
The incident happened near Iran’s Ras al-Kuh coast. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization said in an alert that the vessel “had been boarded by armed men while at anchor.”
