Kuwait-flagged oil tanker off Dubai hit by a strike

Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Monday, as President Donald Trump warned the U.S. would obliterate Iran's energy plants and oil wells if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz.
The strike on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi is the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels by missiles or explosive air and sea drones in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Crude oil prices briefly spiked anew after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices.
Kuwait Petroleum Corp, ⁠the ship's owner, said the attack happened early on Tuesday, causing a fire and hull damage, but there were no reported injuries.
Authorities in Dubai later said they had been able to bring the fire under ⁠control following a drone attack on the tanker. No injuries have been reported, they said.
The jump in oil and fuel prices has started to weigh on U.S. household finances and become a political headache for Trump and his Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections, having vowed to lower energy prices and ramp up U.S. oil and gas production.

Maritime intelligence company Tanker Trackers said that, according to its tracking information, 2 million barrels of crude were on board the vessel — about 1.2 million from Saudi Arabia and about 800,000 from Kuwait. The tanker “was done loading a month ago,” the tanker tracking company said of the vessel on social media.

The Al-Salmi is a massive vessel that is nearly 1,100 feet long and was built in 2011 by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in South Korea.

Iran did not immediately respond to reports of the attack.