Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy said early Thursday that two oil tankers and a tugboat caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, the latest in a rapid-fire string of claimed attacks on commercial shipping that has unsettled global oil markets for a second straight day. One tanker was disabled after striking a mine south of the strait, Iranian state media reported, while a supertanker was halted by fire while exiting the eastern side of the waterway and a tugboat caught fire attempting to assist it.

The new claims came roughly 24 hours after the Revolutionary Guard said four separate oil tankers had hit mines and caught fire in the same stretch of water on Wednesday. Separately, a tanker was struck by two unidentified projectiles about 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar, according to a British military maritime tracking agency cited by CBS News. The crew's condition and the extent of damage on that vessel were not immediately known. No casualties have been reported across the latest wave of incidents.

A waterway Tehran calls "unsafe and closed"

The Revolutionary Guard has declared the strait off-limits to any vessel that does not coordinate its passage with Tehran, a position the United States has rejected. Much of the shipping chaos traces back to the US-Iran war that erupted in February, which has produced more than 30 attacks on commercial vessels in the Mideast according to maritime trackers. Iran's Guards said in late October that two oil tankers exploded after hitting mines in the same corridor, part of a pattern that has made the strait, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes, one of the most dangerous waterways on the planet.

THE STRAIT IS UNSAFE AND CLOSED TO SHIPPING THAT WILL NOT COORDINATE WITH TEHRAN.

Oman said Thursday it is still negotiating with Iran on a joint system to manage traffic through the strait, an arrangement officials there say could help end the state of war altogether. China's foreign ministry said separately that avoiding a resumption of full-scale hostilities remains a top priority for Beijing, which relies heavily on Gulf oil imports.

Oil whiplash follows the midterms

The ship attacks have whipsawed crude prices already reeling from Tuesday's Democratic sweep of Congress. Brent crude fell below $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since September, sliding to around $94 on fears that a Democratic-controlled Congress could tighten sanctions enforcement or push for de-escalation talks. Brent then rebounded 2.2% to $96.70 on Thursday as the fresh attack claims stoked fresh supply fears.

Most of the attack details so far rest on Iranian state media and have not been independently verified by Western officials, a caveat several outlets have repeated throughout the week. Still, insurers and shippers have continued rerouting or delaying transits through the strait, and benchmark war-risk premiums for tankers in the Gulf have climbed for a third straight week, according to shipping industry trackers.

What happens next largely hinges on whether the Oman-brokered traffic framework can be finalized. Diplomats involved in the talks say a deal could be announced within days, though similar timelines have slipped before during the nine-month-old conflict.