Iran re-closes Strait of Hormuz, fires on merchant ships

2026-04-18 · shipping · major

Iran's military announced it had closed the strait again, citing the continued US blockade, with the IRGC navy saying it would stay closed until the blockade was lifted and warning approaching vessels would be targeted. Ships were fired on the same day, including the VLCC Sanmar Herald (attacked by two Iranian gunboats despite clearance) and two India-flagged vessels forced to turn back.

Brent next close +4.8% · +7 days +13.4% · transits 6.4 → 5.4 per day · reaction near an ordinary day (94.3th percentile)

Attribution caveat: 2 other major event(s) sit inside this one's ±7-day window (2026-04-12 Islamabad Talks collapse; US announces blockade of Iranian ports; 2026-04-17 Iran declares strait 'completely open'; contradicted same day), so the reaction is not cleanly separable.

Sources

Washington Post · PBS NewsHour

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Computed, not asserted — every number here is derived from public data: official EIA Brent closes via FRED, IMF PortWatch transit counts, Polymarket and Kalshi odds, and source-linked curated events. Method and caveats · Atom feed · llms.txt

https://chokepointdata.com/event/2026-04-18-iran-re-closes-strait-of-hormuz-fires-on-merchant-ships/