The strait has been the war's central flashpoint since the IRGC forbade passage on February 28, 2026 and formally announced a closure on March 2. A U.S.–Iran ceasefire on April 8 and the Islamabad Memorandum of June 17 were meant to reopen it; the truce broke down on July 8 after renewed attacks on commercial ships. Fighting resumed on August 30 when U.S. forces struck rocket launchers on Larak Island, saying IRGC units were preparing to lay mines, and Iran answered with missiles and drones at bases in Jordan and the UAE. Two tankers carrying Saudi crude were hit late on August 31, and on September 1 CENTCOM said it had struck IRGC air-defense, radar, maritime, mine-laying and communications sites — around 100 targets according to U.S. officials — under a new "tanker for tanker" policy that for the first time hit Iranian government tankers. Reports on this page are updated as the tracker processes them; the newest are in the Iran war live updates.
The Strait of Hormuz joins the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman between Iran's Hormozgan coast and Oman's Musandam peninsula. It is about 34 km (21 miles) wide at its narrowest, and the shipping channel is narrower still: two lanes of roughly 3 km (2 miles) each, separated by a buffer zone. The Iranian islands of Larak, Qeshm, Hormuz and Hengam sit on the northern side within sight of the inbound lane; Bandar Abbas, Iran's main naval base and container port, lies just behind them, and Jask on the Gulf of Oman covers the eastern approach. On the southern side are Khasab in Oman and, further along the coast, Fujairah in the UAE — the terminal for the pipeline that lets some Gulf crude bypass the strait. Before the war roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day, about a fifth of seaborne oil trade, passed through.
Iran has tried to run the strait through pre-approved routes and fees — a Persian Gulf Strait Authority was announced on May 5 — and has demanded that inbound traffic use a northern lane through Iranian waters near Larak Island. The U.S. Navy has escorted merchant ships (Operation Project Freedom, launched May 4), backed a widened southern corridor through Omani waters announced on June 27, and said on August 25 that it had cleared more than 100 suspected mines from the traffic-separation scheme. Transits remain far below pre-war levels — under half by most counts, with single-digit days during the worst weeks — and war-risk insurance premiums have multiplied. Where a report names a lane, island or port, the tracker keeps that wording and links the source.
Is the Strait of Hormuz closed? Declared closed by Iran, but not sealed. The IRGC forbade passage on February 28, 2026 and announced a closure on March 2; ships have moved since under Iranian pre-approval, U.S. escort or the Omani-waters corridor, and transits have stayed well below pre-war levels. Renewed U.S. and Iranian strikes since August 30 and the tanker attacks of August 31 have cut traffic again. The map shows the latest reported incidents with timestamps.
What is the "tanker for tanker" policy? A U.S. policy reported on September 1–2, 2026: for each tanker attacked in the strait, U.S. forces strike an Iranian government tanker. According to U.S. officials cited by Axios and CNBC, the first such strikes hit two Iranian tankers after two supertankers carrying Saudi crude were struck on August 31. The tracker links the original reporting for each strike.
How wide is the Strait of Hormuz? About 34 km (21 miles) at its narrowest, between Oman's Musandam peninsula and Iran's Hormozgan coast. The shipping channel is narrower: two lanes of roughly 3 km (2 miles) each, separated by a buffer, running between Larak and Qeshm islands on the Iranian side and Omani waters to the south.
Why was Larak Island struck? CENTCOM described the August 30, 2026 strike on Larak Island as a limited action to stop IRGC units from laying mines in the strait, and said rocket launchers were hit. Iranian media reported soldiers killed and wounded. Larak sits directly beside the inbound shipping lane, which is why both sides treat it as the key to the northern route.
Which ships have been attacked in the strait? Since March 2026 public reporting lists dozens of attacked, seized or mined vessels — tankers, bulk carriers and container ships under many flags — including Skylight, Mayuree Naree, the seized MSC Epaminondas and MSC Francesca, GFS Galaxy, and the Saudi-crude carriers Sidr and Senegal Prosperity on August 31. Each map item links to the report it came from.