Halloween in the Strait

It’s Halloween in the Strait of Hormuz, and you know it because the IRGC ghouls are lurking between the swells.

Kenneth R. Timmerman | October 31, 2026

It’s Halloween in the Strait of Hormuz, and you know it because the IRGC ghouls are lurking between the swells.

The latest incident report from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) involved a tanker exiting the Strait, 25 NM Northeast of Khasab, Oman, that “was approached on the port side by a small boat which attached two explosive devices to the hull above the waterline.”

These are called limpet mines. I think I can safely guarantee that the “small boat” that deployed them was not some local skipper out fishing for marlin. 

The UKMTO reports rarely mention the flag of the ships being attacked. We have been told that Iran is not attacking Russian or Chinese ships, and while that may be true, we just don’t know. 

What is clear is that the endless Iranian claims that ships are hitting IRGC sea mines are categorically false. These are “scare-me” reports aimed at increasing insurance costs and compelling shippers reluctant to appeal for U.S. Navy protection to pay Iran’s blackmail safe transit tax to sail through Iranian territorial waters.

CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper went on a helicopter tour of the Strait and the Persian Gulf earlier this week, and showed footage of U.S. helicopters, fighter jets, and sea drones patrolling the international shipping lanes. 

Admiral Cooper specifically denied Iran’s claims to have remined the Strait, saying that the U.S. has “successfully cleared” all sea mines from........

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