The Guardian says the US sunk five tankers; the Independent says the US military reported striking them

The price. Brent crude went above $100 a barrel on Wednesday. The Independent quoted $101.07 at the London close, up from $98.00 late Tuesday afternoon, and put the FTSE 100 down 141.60 points, 1.3%, at 10,670.06. RTÉ dates the last time Brent was this high to 24 July; the Guardian says only "since July".

The two attacks. Tehran says it attacked 10 ships around the strait of Hormuz. The US military says it struck five Iranian oil tankers. Neither account has independent confirmation in any report we hold.

Whose account is treated as fact.

Not settled. Whether anyone was aboard any of the ships in either account. None of the four reports names a crew member, gives a casualty figure, or says whether the vessels were crewed. How long the war has run is not settled either: the Guardian calls it "six-month-long", the Independent says it "is now in its seventh month". And nothing we hold puts a source on either attack other than the two governments themselves.

What this is about. The United States and Iran are at war, and the fighting is now mostly over who controls one stretch of sea. Its effects reach fuel prices far from the Gulf.

How it got here. - 1979: Iran's revolution overthrew the Shah, a US ally, and set up the Islamic Republic. Students then held US diplomats hostage in Tehran. Washington cut diplomatic ties in 1980, and the two governments have not restored them since. - 2015: Iran agreed a deal with the US and other world powers that limited its nuclear programme in return for lifting sanctions. - 2018: President Donald Trump took the US out of that deal and brought sanctions back. - June 2025: Israel and Iran fought a short war. The US bombed Iranian nuclear sites during it. - 2026: The current war began. The Guardian calls it "six-month-long" and the Independent says it "is now in its seventh month". We hold no report on how it started, so we do not say.

The strait. The strait of Hormuz is the narrow channel between Iran and Oman. It links the Gulf to the open ocean, and tankers carrying Gulf oil to the rest of the world pass through it. The Guardian says fighting in recent weeks has "largely revolved around who controls the strait": Iran is trying to close it, and Washington is enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports.

The actors. - Iran borders the strait. Its oil exports travel by tanker. - The United States is Iran's main opponent in the war and is blockading Iran's ports. - Oil markets and the countries that import oil, including the UK and Ireland, are not fighting. They pay when shipping stops.

What is at stake. Brent crude is the benchmark price for oil and is traded in London. When tankers cannot pass through the strait safely, Brent rises. That price feeds into petrol, heating and shipping costs. RTÉ reported that the attacks "stifled hopes of a normalisation of oil shipping in the region".

Where it stands. The Guardian calls these the sharpest strikes in weeks, and neither side has broken the deadlock. We do not know whether anyone was aboard the ships hit, and the only sources we hold for either attack are the two governments involved.