US forces attack and seize Iranian ship Touska near Strait of Hormuz
US President Donald Trump has said United States forces have seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get past his country’s naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the ship, named 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 siad Touska was headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and ignored multiple US warnings over six hours to evacuate the engine room.
Early on Monday, Iran’s top joint military command said the US had violated a ceasefire reached earlier this month by firing at an Iranian commercial ship that was heading from China to Iran.
“We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military,” a spokesperson of Khatam al-Anbiya said.
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 Iran and a US blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian officials said ships would not pass while the US blockade – in place since April 13 – remained in effect. “It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah took hold on Friday.
But Iran said it would continue enforcing its restrictions there after Trump said the US blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with Washington.
After a short-lived rise in transit attempts on Saturday, ships in the Gulf once again stayed put, after reports of vessels coming under fire mid-passage and being forced to withdraw.
Trump’s statement came hours after he said US negotiators would travel to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday for possible talks with Iran aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran.
That had raised hopes of extending the fragile ceasefire that is set to expire by Wednesday. But Iranian state media reported that Tehran had not agreed to a second round of talks.
