The Jerusalem Post names militias in Iraq, hedged with "potentially"; the other six reports name no one at all

The strike is agreed. UPI, Al Jazeera, IRNA and the Jerusalem Post carry the same shutdown: a drone hit Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline and the line closed. Al Jazeera alone sizes it — 1,200km, carrying "up to 5 percent of global oil supply". The Jerusalem Post publishes a satellite image of the struck line, captioned 11 September.

The attacker is not. One of the seven reports we hold names anyone, and it hedges. The Jerusalem Post's analysis writes that Iraq's prime minister "doesn't seem very focused on consequences for the militias that potentially have caused a huge economic headache for the world". UPI has a drone strike acting with nobody named behind it. Al Jazeera gives no cause at all. No report we hold carries a claim of responsibility.

Four numbers for one barrel.

Not settled. Who fired, and whether any state answers for it. How long the line stays shut: IRNA reports several weeks and credits that to the Associated Press, not to itself. And whether the traffic Shargh counts through the Strait of Hormuz — into single digits a day, against 14 a day over the previous 10 days — belongs to this story. No report we hold connects the two.

What this is about. Someone attacked a Saudi oil pipeline with drones. It matters because this line is Saudi Arabia's way of sending oil around the Strait of Hormuz.

How it got here. - The strait. Most Gulf oil reaches the world by tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel between Iran and Oman. Iran sits on its northern shore. Its leaders have often said they could close it. - The bypass. Saudi Arabia built the East-West pipeline in the early 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, when tankers in the Gulf were being attacked. It carries crude from the eastern oilfields to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, so Saudi oil can leave without going through Hormuz. Al Jazeera puts the line at 1,200km, carrying up to 5 percent of global oil supply. - It has been hit before. In 2019, drones struck pumping stations on the same line. Yemen's Houthi movement claimed that attack. Some US officials said it came from Iraq. That was never settled in public. - Iraq's militias. Armed groups formed in Iraq in 2014 to fight the Islamic State. Many have close ties to Iran. They sit formally inside Iraq's state security forces but act largely on their own. That is why a strike blamed on them raises the question of what Baghdad controls.

The actors. - Saudi Arabia owns the pipeline and sells the oil. - Iraq's government answers, formally, for the armed groups on its soil. The Jerusalem Post names the prime minister as Ali al Zaidi. - Iran backs several of those groups and borders the strait. - Oil buyers everywhere pay the price when supply is cut.

What is at stake. If the line stays shut while traffic through Hormuz is also thin, both of the Gulf's main export routes are squeezed together. If a state is found responsible, a strike on oil supply becomes a dispute between governments.

Where it stands. The line is closed. Nobody has claimed the strike. The one report that names suspects hedges. None of the reports we hold says when the line will reopen.