US says it fired missiles to disable ship breaking Iran blockade

The US military says one of its helicopters has fired missiles to disable “the steering gear” of a cargo ship attempting to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports.

In a statement, US Central Command (Centcom) says its MH-60 aircraft on Tuesday fired two hellfire missiles into the engine room of the Panama-flagged M/V Vela Nova vessel, as it attempted to transit the Gulf of Oman.

Centcom says it acted after “the ship’s civilian crew ignored repeated warnings from American forces”. It adds that the vessel “is no longer transiting to Iran”.

Iran has so far not commented on the issue. The US first began blockading Iranian ports in April, following failed attempts to end the US-Iran war.

In its statement on X, Centcom says M/V Vela attempted to sail to an Iranian port without naming it.

It says the US blockade “remains in full effect”, adding that as of 11 August Centcom has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled 3 non-compliant vessels, and boarded 2.”