Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it has hit a US tanker in the northern part of the Persian Gulf.
Iranian state media reported this according to Reuters news agency on Thursday.
According to the Iranian military organization, the ship is said to be on fire.
The report has not been independently confirmed, and there is no immediate further information about the extent of damage to the ship. It is also not clear which ship it is.
The Revolutionary Guard also says that in times of war it controls the passage through the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Foreign Minister: US will regret sinking of Iranian ship
The strait is one of the busiest in the world. About a fifth of the world's total oil consumption passes through the strait, and unrest in the region has led to rising oil prices.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Thursday morning that the US will regret the sinking of an Iranian ship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
87 bodies have been found after the sinking of the ship "Iris Dena", authorities at a hospital in the city of Galle in Sri Lanka and naval sources reported, according to Reuters.
In a post on X, the Iranian Foreign Minister calls the sinking "an atrocity at sea".
- Mark my words: the US will bitterly regret the precedent it has set, writes Araghchi.
Supreme Leader Killed on Saturday
The Revolutionary Guard is a powerful military force that was established in 1979 to protect the clerical regime after the revolution.
It operates in parallel with Iran's regular army and reports directly to Iran's supreme leader.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on Saturday at the age of 86 in a US-Israeli attack.
Since then, the Middle East has been marked by intense unrest, with both continued attacks from the US and Israel and Iranian retaliation in a number of places.
A funeral for Khamenei has been postponed for the time being amid the continued attacks in Iran's capital, Tehran, writes the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, the late Ayatollah's son Mojtaba Khamenei is considered the favorite to become his successor, according to several international media outlets.
/ritzau/
