War in the Middle East: US Navy opens fire on cargo ship attempting to break blockade

The American Marines now control the ship,” assured Donald Trump.

Avec the American Navy opening fire on an Iranian cargo ship attempting to bypass the US blockade of Iranian ports, then boarding it, Donald Trump claimed on Sunday, April 19.

The cargo ship Touska, flying the Iranian flag, “tried to breach our maritime blockade, and paid dearly for it,” wrote the US president on his Truth Social network. An American destroyer intercepted the cargo ship “in the Gulf of Oman and ordered it to stop,” but with the crew refusing to obey, “the warship immobilized it by firing at the engine room and the American Marines now have control of the ship,” according to Donald Trump.

The US Central Command for the Middle East, Centcom, stated that the ship’s crew had been ordered to evacuate the engine room before damaging its propulsion system with several rounds of shells. Marines then boarded the ship, “which remains under American control,” the statement added.

The Touska is subject to sanctions from the US Treasury, noted Donald Trump. According to Marine Traffic, the container ship Touska, which departed from Malaysia on April 12, was approximately 45 km from the southernmost point of the Iranian coast, near the city of Chabahar, six hours before Donald Trump’s announcement.

“The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon retaliate and take retaliatory measures against this act of armed piracy and against the American military,” wrote the spokesman for the Iranian general staff on Telegram. He accused the US of “violating the ceasefire” that has been in effect for two weeks since April 8.

The Strait of Hormuz is closed again

“We express our concern over the forced interception of the ship in question by the American side,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun at a regular press briefing. “We hope that the parties involved will adopt a responsible attitude, strictly respect the ceasefire agreement, avoid escalating tensions, and create the necessary conditions for the resumption of normal transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

Since the blockade of Iranian ports imposed by the US on April 13, “American forces have turned around 25 commercial ships or sent them back to a port in Iran,” according to Centcom.

Iran lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, but announced on Saturday to take back “strict control” in response to the US decision to maintain their blockade of Iranian ports.

In a previous post on Truth Social on Sunday morning, Donald Trump accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire, which expires in three days, by launching attacks on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting a French and a British ship. A CMA CGM ship “was fired upon yesterday (Saturday) in the Strait of Hormuz,” said the French maritime transport group to AFP.