Uncertainty Surrounds Possible Attack on Oman's Strait of Hormuz Lighthouse

Uncertainty surrounds suggestions made that Iran has mounted an attack on navigational aids mounted on the Omani-owned Didamar Island, one of three islands which sit 10nm north of the tip of the Musandam peninsula, mid-channel between the Omani mainland and the median point in the Strait of Hormuz with Iran.

In peacetime, Didamar Island hosts the Hormuz Control Centre manned by the Royal Navy of Oman, which marshals marine traffic moving through the channels of the Traffic Separation Scheme - parts of which lie in Omani territorial waters. The slab of rock hosts a radio communications tower for radio relay and Channel 16 communications, a lighthouse, and a marine radar mounted on a 25m tower; these are important navigational aids for all ships transiting the Strait, and are maintained by Arabian Maritime and Navigation Aids Services (AMMAS), part of a network of buoys, lights and aids helping mariners navigate the Strait.

Reports of an attack seem to be based on two sources. In the first, a social media video taken at some range, smoke can be seen rising from Didamar Island. But it is not clear whether smoke is arising from the island itself, or from a stricken tanker behind and in the lee of the island. In support though, the Iranian Fars News Agency claimed that navigational aids had been struck on the ‘southern reefs’, supposedly because they had been aiding the ‘unauthorized’ transit of ships through the Strait.

This story was originally published by The Maritime Executive. Read the full story at The Maritime Executive →