Fuel Tanker Explosion in Western Iran Kills at least 11 as US-Iran Tensions Escalate

At least 11 people have been killed and seven injured after a fuel tanker exploded in western Iran, state media said.

State news agency IRNA reported late on Saturday that the vehicle suffered a brake fault and struck several cars before catching fire near a traffic police station outside Sanandaj, a Kurdish city roughly 400 kilometres (248 miles) west of Tehran.

The injured were taken to hospital.

A similar collision involving a fuel tanker and a passenger bus near Sanandaj in 2018 killed 15 people and injured four.

Road accidents claim over 17,000 lives annually in Iran, with experts blaming unsafe vehicles, disregard for driving laws and inadequate emergency services for the high mortality rate.

The explosion comes at a time when tensions have escalated between Iran and the US in recent days.

The two nations have traded strikes on ships in the latest round of attacks since the conflict flared a week ago after a period of relative calm.

US Central Command, which oversees the nation’s military in the Middle East, said it struck three Iranian oil tankers, including one off the coast of Kharg Island, near the nation’s oil export hub, after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at two US Navy ships.

Admiral ⁠Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said: “Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose ⁠an even higher economic cost — taking out three of yours.”

The IRGC responded by threatening intensified strikes against US military vessels in the region, and later said it targeted three tankers that Tehran claimed were on unauthorised routes in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as as three US-linked vessels in other areas.

The exchange of attacks followed an escalation in the past week that threatens to deepen a conflict that has continued since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February.

They also come after US president Donald Trump insisted the Iran conflict is a relatively minor operation, rather than a full-on war.

"I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. “It’s not a big thing.”