Iran said on Thursday that its navy had hit seven oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that The Hill's report said threatened to exacerbate regional tensions and the global energy crisis driving inflation.

According to The Hill, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said in a statement that it had hit four tankers that were transferring oil. The Hill's account of the other three ships was cut off in the summary available for this story, so their status is not described here.

PBS NewsHour's report said, citing The Associated Press, that Iran's state television reported seven oil tankers either caught fire or were damaged by mines overnight Wednesday into Thursday. According to that account, the ships were either targeted or struck naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

The two accounts differ on the cause of the damage. The Hill attributed the hits to Iran's navy and the Revolutionary Guard, while the state television account described fires and mine damage. The Hill and PBS NewsHour attribute the accounts to different Iranian bodies, and the summaries do not explain how the two relate.

The figure of seven ships appears in both reports, although the reports describe the causes differently. Neither outlet's summary identifies the vessels, their owners, or whether anyone aboard was injured. The Hill and PBS NewsHour, in the summaries available, did not describe any response from other governments or shipping operators.

This account is drawn only from the summaries of both reports, and the figures and attributions above are reported as the outlets stated them.

Sources: The Hill: Iran: 7 ships hit in the Strait of Hormuz; PBS NewsHour: Iran says 7 oil tankers damaged in Strait of Hormuz, and other Middle East news.