Kuwait Summons Iran Envoy After Two Tankers Hit at Hormuz

The Keifan, a Kuwaiti crude oil tanker, was struck by an unknown projectile as it transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, injuring crew members and drawing an immediate diplomatic response from Kuwait City. The next day, a second Kuwaiti tanker, the Al-Salam II, took a hit in the same waters: a small breach in the hull, a fire that crew extinguished before the tanker continued.

Kuwait's foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador after the Keifan attack, calling it a serious violation of international law and maritime safety norms. Iran has not claimed either strike.

UKMTO, which monitors commercial shipping across the region, issued alerts for both incidents. The back-to-back attacks on vessels from the same country signal a deliberate escalation beyond the broader campaign that has already targeted dozens of tankers in these waters over the past year.

Kuwait had been measured in its public statements as Hormuz tensions rose, but the twin strikes appear to have changed the calculus. Kuwait holds the Arab League presidency this year, giving its diplomatic response a weight that extends beyond its own bilateral relationship with Tehran.

The attacks are part of a wider surge of maritime incidents around Hormuz. Iran recently expanded its blacklist of vessels barred from the strait to 81 ships, and the targeting range has extended further from the strait's entrance, as seen when vessels including the Cape Dao were struck off Oman's coast in late September.

Roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait each day. With Kuwaiti tankers now on the target list, the shipping lanes that global energy markets depend on have moved into a more complicated phase.