A US military fighter jet struck the stern of the Panama-flagged M/V Ocean Molica, also known as the Arika Sun, in the Gulf of Oman on October 10 after its crew allegedly ignored repeated warnings and attempted to pass through the US naval blockade of Iran. The precision strike disabled the ship’s propulsion system, and the crew was reported unharmed.
The vessel had previously departed an Iranian port and was transiting regional waters when it was intercepted. The United States resumed its blockade of ships entering or leaving Iranian ports on July 14. Since then, US Central Command says its forces have disabled four commercial vessels, turned back 135 ships and destroyed 10 tankers tied to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked shadow network.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said it had received a report involving a tanker and military forces in the Gulf of Oman and was investigating.
The strike came as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz declined and attacks on tankers increased during the wider US-Israel war with Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard separately said it had struck the LPG carrier NV Sunshine after accusing the vessel of using an illegal route south of the strait. The waterway carried about one-fifth of global oil consumption before the war, making the competing US and Iranian restrictions a direct threat to commercial shipping through a crucial energy corridor.