The Iranian container ship identified as Touska was targeted by US terrorist forces on Sunday night while en route from China to Iran through the Gulf of Oman.
Following the attack, Iranian military forces launched drone strikes toward several US military vessels in the area in response.
The United States, claiming to possess the world’s largest military, is indeed acting as a “leader of pirates”.
Alongside Washington’s announcement of a naval blockade against Iran, Tehran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. Any vessel or oil tanker passing through the region without Iranian authorization would face punitive action by Iranian military forces.
US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday night that US forces have seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship that he claimed was trying to get past a naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz.
In a social media post, Trump said Touska was warned by a US Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman to stop, but its “crew refused to listen”.
He added that the US Navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room” and that US Marines had custody of the vessel, and were “seeing what’s on board”.
The US Central Command said Touska was headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and ignored multiple US warnings over six hours to evacuate the engine room.
The development comes amid a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for the shipment of about a fifth of the world’s oil, amid threats from a US blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports.