Tankers and bulk carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. AP
An Iranian gunboat fired at a container ship off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, while another ship off Iran was also fired upon, a British maritime security agency said.
“The master of a container ship reported that the vessel was approached by one IRGC gunboat... that then fired upon the vessel, which has caused heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact reported,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said.
It added that the incident took place 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman and that all crew members were safe.
According to British maritime security firm Vanguard Tech, the vessel was sailing under a Liberian flag and “had been informed it had permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz.”
However, Iranian news agency Tasnim said the ship had “ignored warnings from Iran’s armed forces.”
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran just hours before it was set to expire, giving Tehran time to present a “unified proposal” ahead of possible negotiations.
Trump said the US would continue its blockade of Iranian ports, which Iran has called “unacceptable” and has said is one reason it has not yet agreed to join talks in Islamabad.
In a separate incident, a cargo ship eight nautical miles west of Iran was fired upon and stopped in the water. It was unclear who targeted this ship.
“A master of an outbound cargo ship reports having been fired upon and is now stopped in the water. The crew is safe and accounted for. There is no reported damage to the vessel,” UKMTO said.
Vanguard identified it as the Panama-flagged container ship Euphoria, which it said was leaving the Strait of Hormuz. “It remains unclear whether it has resumed transiting,” the firm said.
Marine Traffic showed that the ship was heading from Jebel Ali port in the UAE to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Later, maritime security sources told Reuters that a third container ship was fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran while leaving the Strait of Hormuz. The Liberia-flagged vessel, which was not damaged, had stopped in the water. Its crew are safe, the sources said.
Iran has heavily restricted shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, first in retaliation for the US-Israeli war on the country, and then in response to a US blockade of Iranian ports.
In peacetime, about 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas passes through the strategic waterway, which links the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and was fully open until the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February.
The Revolutionary Guard vowed on Wednesday to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region.”
Wednesday’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz came after the US seized an Iranian container ship after firing on it over the weekend and boarded an oil tanker linked to Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean.
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