Dubai: An explosion damaged an Iranian oil tanker travelling through the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia on Friday, Iranian media reported. There was no immediate word from Saudi Arabia on the reported blast.

State television said the explosion damaged two storerooms aboard the unnamed oil tanker and caused an oil leak into the Red Sea. It did not elaborate.

The state-run IRNA news agency and others relied on an online news report for their stories, while the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted an anonymous source with direct knowledge of the incident.

Iran was blamed for an attack on a Saudi oil facility in September.Credit:AP

All reports said the reported explosion happened off the coast of the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.

The US Navy's 5th Fleet, which oversees the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The reported explosion comes after the US has alleged that in past months Iran attacked oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Tehran denies the allegation.

The explosion could push tensions between Iran and the US even higher, more than a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal and imposed sanctions now crushing Iran's economy.

The mysterious attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran shooting down a US military surveillance drone and other incidents across the wider Middle East followed Trump's decision.

British tanker the Stena Impero was released by Iran in late September after being captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Credit:Reuters

The latest assault saw Saudi Arabia's vital oil industry come under a drone-and- cruise-missile attack, halving the kingdom's output. The US has blamed Iran for the attack, something denied by Tehran. Yemen's Houthi rebels, whom the kingdom is fighting in a yearslong war, claimed that assault, though analysts say the missiles used in the attack wouldn't have the range to reach the sites from Yemen.

AP

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