U.S. Central Command said a U.S. fighter jet disabled the Panama-flagged cargo vessel M/V Ocean Molica in the Gulf of Oman after the ship ignored repeated warnings and tried to transit regional waters after leaving an Iranian port. The strike hit the stern with a precision munition, stopping the vessel’s propulsion without harming its crew, CENTCOM said. The action put U.S. naval enforcement directly along the route between the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a large share of global oil shipments.
Blockade Enforcement at Sea
CENTCOM said the vessel also went by the name Arika Sun. The Hill described it as trying to bypass the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, while Reuters said it tried to run a naval blockade against Iran. CENTCOM released video of the strike and told mariners to heed its blockade warnings.
The command told mariners in the Gulf of Oman and near the Strait of Hormuz to monitor notice-to-mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces. Those instructions make clear that commercial operators traveling through the area must follow U.S. military notices and communicate with U.S. forces.
Since the blockade resumed on July 14, U.S. forces have disabled four shipping vessels and turned around 135 ships, CENTCOM said. The command also said U.S. forces destroyed 10 tankers “linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ multibillion-dollar shadow network over the same period.” Reuters said it couldn’t immediately reach the bulk carrier’s operator for comment.
Shipping Risks and Economic Pressure
In a separate incident on Saturday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy’s press office said a supertanker struck a mine while passing through the strait, according to the state-run Fars News Agency. Iranian officials warned that if the conflict continued, “not even one drop of oil will be exported” from the strait or elsewhere in the Persian Gulf, state media reported. The IRGC also warned: “A massive fire awaits any violating oil tanker that seeks to disregard the security and regulations of the Strait of Hormuz.”
The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil, The Hill reported. Reuters said it carried 20% of the world’s oil consumption before the war. Vessel traffic through the strait fell to its lowest level in more than two months after tanker attacks reached their highest level last week since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February, Reuters reported. Shipping disruptions have raised concerns and supported crude prices.
The U.S. national average for regular gasoline reached $4.36 per gallon on Sunday morning, according to AAA. The source reports that figure alongside the shipping disruption, but doesn’t quantify how much the blockade or attacks contributed to the price.
Military Standoff Continues
The conflict between the United States and Iran had stretched into its eighth month, The Hill reported. President Trump was weighing options to resume strikes. He said Thursday that discussions with Iran had been “productive” and that he wouldn’t attack the regime before the November midterm elections.
A White House official told The Hill earlier Thursday that the United States “is in a very strong position with control of the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian economy collapsing.” The statement describes the U.S. position through its control of a critical shipping route and pressure on Iran’s economy. The Hill also reported that Iran’s military continued striking commercial tankers trying to transit the strait, while the Trump administration maintained its economic pressure campaign and naval blockade in the Arabian Sea. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was sailing toward the Middle East to relieve the USS George Washington.
The source accounts describe a widening contest over access to the strait and the commercial traffic that depends on it. They provide no demographic data or account of effects on a native population, and identify no popular opposition movement or institutional beneficiaries beyond the actors named in the reports.