Maritime industry body INTERTANKO has sharpened its description of the campaign against shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz. In its latest weekly advice to members, dated 6 November and reported by Ship Management International on 9 November, the association said attacks inside the Gulf and the strait remain at a high level even as the rest of the Gulf region stays relatively calm, and that they have increased in ferocity [1].

INTERTANKO described what it called a change in tactics. Attackers appear to be using at least two munitions per strike, with targeting focused on the aft of the ship in the region of the engine room, and in at least two attacks Iranian forces used small boats to attach limpet-style mines to the outside of ships' hulls while underway inside the Gulf [1]. The association's reading is that those targeting ships have refined their intent to stop and disable the vessels they attack [1]. On the political track, INTERTANKO judged that an end to the war is now more likely to be sought in the near term following the US elections, but that decision-making uncertainty makes a quick end to the conflict unlikely [1].

The same day, Iran's regular Army Navy and its Revolutionary Guards both laid claim to another mine strike. The Army Navy said on its official website that an oil tanker caught fire after hitting naval mines east of the strait on 9 November - which it called the third such incident in a single day - saying the vessel had switched off its transponders and entered a restricted corridor [2]. The IRGC Navy separately confirmed via its Sepah News outlet that the explosion caused a "massive fire" [2]. No maritime authority has independently verified the strike, and no vessel name, casualty figure or cargo has been confirmed [2].

The Army Navy statement also carried an explicit closure condition: the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to vessels unless "all threats are lifted" [2]. In the same 24-hour window, US CENTCOM said a military aircraft disabled the St. Kitts-flagged M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman after it tried to depart following a port visit to Iran, and put cumulative enforcement since July at 147 commercial vessels redirected and five merchant ships disabled [2].

Flow evidence has not moved. IMF PortWatch's latest weekly print still records a single completed transit on 1 November against a pre-crisis norm near 85 a day, and AIS shows vessels holding position inside the Gulf rather than completing strait crossings. Whether any commercial oil cargo is currently passing through Hormuz remains unconfirmed.