According to a report by the state-run IRIB news agency, at least 11 people were killed and seven others injured on Saturday when a fuel tanker exploded following a traffic accident in western Iran. IRIB quoted Babak Hodaei, head of the emergency medical service at the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, as saying that the incident occurred on an intercity road between Sanandaj County in Kurdistan Province and Hamedan County in Hamedan Province. Hodaei stated that the incident caused fires in several nearby vehicles. According to a Xinhua news agency report, he noted that rescue teams had transported the injured to a hospital in Sanandaj. He added that rescue operations were ongoing at the scene. Local media reported that earlier in July, an oil tanker exploded after striking a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz. The ship reportedly hit the mine after deviating from the route designated by Iran. According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, the tanker had strayed from the prescribed path and was in an area outside the safe maritime traffic route, despite previous warnings. The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It is one of the world’s most critical energy corridors, through which oil and liquefied natural gas are exported from major Gulf producers to international markets. Meanwhile, amidst a new escalation in the standoff between Washington and Tehran, the US military stated on Saturday that it had engaged three Iranian crude oil tankers after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ballistic missiles toward two US Navy warships. US Central Command reported that a US aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer successfully thwarted multiple attacks by Iran. No US personnel were injured. CENTCOM stated, “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces engaged three Iranian crude oil-carrying vessels on September 5, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships patrolling regional waters.”