A US fighter jet struck the stern of a Panama-flagged cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman on Saturday after its crew ignored repeated warnings to halt, US Central Command said, the latest enforcement action in Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Precision strike on the stern
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces disabled the M/V Ocean Molica, also known as the Arika Sun, on October 10 as the ship tried to transit regional waters after leaving an Iranian port. In a statement posted on X, the command said a US fighter jet hit the vessel’s stern with a precision munition, “fully disabling the ship’s propulsion without harming the crew.”
According to CENTCOM, the crew had disregarded repeated warnings and attempted to run the blockade. The command did not say what the ship was carrying, how many people were on board or what happened to the vessel after it was immobilised. Its account could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Tehran on the incident, according to the reports reviewed.
CENTCOM also urged mariners operating near the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz to heed blockade warnings, follow Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact US naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16, Middle East Eye reported.
Three months of enforcement
The United States resumed its blockade of ships entering or leaving Iranian ports on July 14, CENTCOM said. Over roughly three months of what it called strict enforcement, US forces have disabled four commercial vessels and turned back about 135 ships, according to figures cited by Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye.
The command added that US forces have also destroyed 10 tankers it linked to a shipping network run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The blockade is part of a wider conflict that began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran. Al Jazeera described the six-month war as deadlocked.
Rising risks for Gulf shipping
The incident adds to mounting pressure on commercial traffic around the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea route in and out of the Gulf. Before the war, around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments passed through the strait.
Iran has sought to control transit through the waterway by requiring ships to obtain permission to use its preferred routes, and has threatened to block passages it has not authorised, Al Jazeera and Arab News reported. Many vessels have increasingly opted for an alternative route along the southern side of the strait.
Merchant ships have also come under fire elsewhere in the Gulf. Earlier in the week, a vessel was struck by projectiles off the coast of Qatar, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre, as reported by Al Jazeera and Arab News. The origin of the attack was not specified.
UAE rescues 22 sailors from burning tanker
Separately, the UAE National Guard said on Saturday that its Coast Guard had rescued 22 crew members, all Asian nationals, after a fire broke out aboard an oil tanker in Gulf waters. Responding to a distress call from the crew, specialist teams located the vessel and evacuated everyone on board, the National Guard said, adding that those rescued received first aid and were in stable condition.
Authorities did not name the tanker, give its exact location or say what caused the fire. The Indian consulate in Dubai said on Sunday that all crew members were safe, according to Arab News.