US forces have disabled a commercial cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), after its crew allegedly pressed on despite repeated warnings and tried to get past the American naval blockade of Iran. A US military fighter jet hit the stern of the Panama-flagged vessel, also known as the Arika Sun, with a precision-guided weapon on Saturday. CENTCOM said the strike knocked out the ship’s propulsion while leaving its crew unharmed.
The vessel had left an Iranian port and was trying to cross regional waters when it was hit, the command said.
Blockade figures and tanker strikes
CENTCOM said it restarted its blockade on July 14, targeting ships heading into or out of Iranian ports. Over three months of what it described as strict enforcement, the command said its forces had disabled four commercial vessels and forced 135 ships to turn back.
The command also said US forces had destroyed 10 tankers tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which it characterised as a clandestine operation valued in the billions of dollars, during the same period.
Iranian strike in the Strait of Hormuz
Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had hit a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz for taking an unauthorised path, as Tehran tries to impose its own blockade on the key waterway. In a statement broadcast by Iranian state media, the force claimed its units had assumed control over how the strait is run.
The IRGC named the target as a gas tanker, the NV Sunshine, owned by NatWit, which it said was heading south of the strait via a route it considers illegal. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency, known as UKMTO, said on Sunday that an outbound tanker was hit on its port side by an unidentified projectile, starting a fire. Crew were reported safe, but the agency said the extent of damage and environmental effects was not yet known.
Tehran has sought to control passage through the strait during the US-Israel war on Iran, requiring ships to secure approval for its preferred corridors. Some vessels, however, have increasingly opted for a route along the strait’s southern shoreline instead.
Attacks on shipping near Qatar
UKMTO said on Thursday that a ship 94km (58 miles) north of Madinat ash Shamal, off Qatar’s northern coast, was hit by several projectiles, with casualties reported. The agency did not say where the ship came from or how many people were killed or hurt, and noted that authorities were looking into the attack amid a recent spike in strikes on vessels near Hormuz.
Ships crossing the strait, the only sea passage in and out of the oil-producing Gulf, have come under repeated attack since the US and Israel launched the war in late February. Before the conflict, roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the waterway, which remains central to the world economy.
