Explosions heard near Iran’s Kharg Island after unconfirmed tanker strike by US

Explosions heard near Iran’s Kharg Island after unconfirmed tanker strike by US

Published By: Mayank Kasyap 05 Sep 2026 01:21 PM
Subscribe
US Strikes Kharg Island

Courtesy: AI Generated

US Strikes Iran News: Explosions were heard on Saturday, 5 September, near Kharg Island in the Gulf, Iran’s principal oil export terminal, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The source of the blasts was not immediately known, Fars said. That account was carried by Reuters.

Nournews, a state-affiliated outlet, separately reported unconfirmed claims from local sources that an Iranian tanker near Kharg had been targeted by a missile fired by US forces. There was no immediate confirmation from Iranian authorities, and no matching statement from US Central Command was available when these first reports moved.

A Fars correspondent on the island said the sounds came from the Gulf. There were no visible signs of smoke after the blasts, the correspondent said.

What has actually been confirmed so far?

Very little beyond the sound.

Fars confirmed explosions were heard. It did not identify a ship, a munition, damage, or casualties. Nournews labelled the tanker-strike claim unconfirmed. India Today, updating at 12:57 IST, called the story developing and said further details, including whether any vessel was struck, were not immediately available.

That gap matters. Kharg handles the bulk of Iran’s seaborne crude. Markets and governments treat reports from the island as high-impact even when the facts are thin. The responsible reading is the narrow one: blasts were reported. Cause, target and damage remain unverified.

Why does Kharg keep coming up in this war?

Kharg sits in the northern Gulf, about 25 to 30 kilometres off Iran’s mainland. Before the 2026 conflict it handled roughly 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports, a figure repeated across Reuters, OilPrice and maritime briefings through the year.

The wider fight is not new. After US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, Washington imposed a naval blockade on traffic to and from Iranian ports. CENTCOM has previously said US aircraft disabled tankers heading toward Kharg, including the Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie in June and the Curaçao-flagged M/T Belma in July, according to official command statements reported at the time.

On 1 to 2 September, Axios reported that US officials said American forces had struck two Iranian government tankers under a new “tanker for tanker” policy after attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Those vessels were described as anchored north of the blockade line. That earlier round is documented. Saturday’s Kharg sounds are not yet tied to a named ship or a CENTCOM release.

President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated clip in late August claiming Kharg was being “blown to smithereens.” Reuters found no evidence of an attack on the island that day and assessed the video as likely synthetic. National Iranian Oil Company chief Hamid Bovard called the post laughable and said operations on Kharg were continuing. Saturday’s Fars report should not be folded into that earlier, unverified social-media claim.

Will this move oil, or is it still noise?

On X, accounts including The Hormuz Letter and Conflict Alarm framed the blasts as a US hit on an Iranian tanker, possibly in reply to an Iranian strike the night before. Those posts cited “initial Iranian reports.” They are not official confirmations.

RFI and other wires stayed closer to Fars: explosions near Kharg, origin unknown.

For energy desks the next checks are simple. Does CENTCOM post? Does Iran name a vessel? Does satellite or AIS data show a tanker stopping, listing or leaking? Does smoke appear over the terminal itself?

None of that was public in the first hour of reporting. Until it is, the story is a reported explosion near a strategic island, plus an unconfirmed tanker-strike claim, set against six months of blockade, disabled ships and tit-for-tat tanker hits.

This remains a developing story.