Pakistan NHO confirms loss of two Emirati cargo ships within 24 hours near Hormuz

Wartime high of 12 attacks recorded last week, Windward AI says

Two Emirati cargo ships sank in the Strait of Hormuz within a 24-hour period, the first such vessel losses in months, as attacks on commercial shipping through the waterway have escalated.

Pakistan’s National Hydrographic Office, which monitors maritime activity in Middle Eastern waters, confirmed the sinkings of the GFS Pride and the Cape Dao, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. Maritime security companies Vanguard, Marisks and Neptune corroborated the losses.

The GFS Pride, a containership, was struck Tuesday by an unknown projectile approximately one nautical mile east of Ras Makhbuq, Oman, sparking an onboard fire. The crew was safely evacuated before the vessel sank the next day, the three security firms said.

The Cape Dao had been under attack since Sept. 23, when two unidentified projectiles struck its port side about 15 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman. The vessel was carrying about 170,000 tons of coal from the United Arab Emirates to India at the time. One Indian crew member died in that attack.

The sinkings come as the U.S. military has been successfully shepherding more Gulf oil through the strait while working to bottle up Iranian oil exports through a naval blockade and sanctions, the Journal reported. According to the Journal, Iran has repeatedly ramped up attacks during the war in an effort to disrupt the U.S. operation, though it has been rare for those attacks to result in ships being sunk.

The last vessel to sink in the area was the Malta-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige in early March. That vessel was hit by a projectile that sparked a fire in its engine room, forcing the crew to abandon ship. A tugboat sent to assist the Safeen Prestige was also struck. Four seafarers died and three were severely injured, according to the International Maritime Organization.

Vessel attacks around the Strait of Hormuz reached a wartime high of 12 attacks on commercial vessels last week, maritime-intelligence firm Windward AI said Tuesday. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with the British Navy, reported that two other containerships and a tanker were also attacked on Tuesday as they crossed the strait.

About two dozen ships have been hit since the beginning of October, according to UKMTO and maritime security firms — more than the total number of vessels struck in all of September.