The US military stopped a merchant vessel trying to break through its blockade of Iranian ports by firing a missile into its engine room, the US Central Command said on Saturday.
That should do it
The Gambia
... The Gambia is actually surrounded by The Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain...
-flagged fat merchantman Lian Star ignored more than 20 warnings from US forces overnight as it tried to enter an Iranian port, the military said. The ship remained adrift in the Gulf of Oman, and US forces have not boarded it, said a US official with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
to discuss military operations.
With the latest action, the US military has stopped six ships trying to breach the blockade. One was allowed to proceed. Another 116 ships have been redirected, the military said.
The US launched the blockade on April 17 in response to Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
effectively closing the strait after the war in the Middle East began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. A fragile ceasefire has held since April 7. Now the region awaits word on whether a deal can be reached to extend it by 60 days, while talks would be held on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
While Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking nuclear arms, it has amassed uranium enriched to levels with no civilian application.
The stockpile of highly enriched material is believed to be buried underground since the US struck three key Iranian nuclear sites in the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025.
The ceasefire declared by Trump in April came with core declared goals of the war unfulfilled, including ensuring that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons, destroying its missile program, and creating the conditions for the Iranian public to overthrow the regime.
Events in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway between Iran and Oman, have shaken the global economy. Shipments of significant amounts of oil, natural gas and related supplies like fertilizer are largely stranded, increasing the strain on consumers and food producers.
The US blockade seeks to limit Iran’s own shipments and further weaken its access to cash, creating more pain for its long-weakened economy.
US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States...
met with advisers on Friday but has yet to decide on whether to move ahead with a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait. Iran has said the deal had not been finalized.
Commercial traffic has quietly continued to flow through the strait, despite Iran’s assertions that it must approve any transits, though at a much lower volume than before the war.
Iran has even charged tolls for transit as high as $2 million, which experts have called a violation of a principle of international maritime trade: freedom of peaceful navigation.
Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
’s Deputy Prime Minister, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali Al Thani, said on Saturday said that the Gulf nation opposes charging fees to transit, "but for certain times when they say they are going to use it for mine clearing or some usage of the fees for a temporary time, this is something that is negotiable, and it could be something that will help the transit of the Strait of Hormuz to be back to normal stage."
The US official previously told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the US has not found or destroyed any mines in the strait.
US has helped guide ships going dark through the Strait of Hormuz — report
[IsraelTimes] Some ships have managed to traverse the blockaded Strait of Hormuz by turning off lights and navigation beacons and relying on US military guidance to avoid collisions, say shipowners and US officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The sources say the US advises the ships on when to go dark and how to handle threats from Iranian forces.
Some ships were going dark and sailing through a part of the Persian Gulf that was cleared by the US earlier this month as part of “Project Freedom,” the US initiative to guide shipping that was suspended amid opposition from Gulf allies.
One ship that traversed the strait in this fashion earlier this week was a Greek oil tanker carrying two million barrels of crude, the Journal says. The ship was reportedly stuck in the Persian Gulf since early March, traveled along the coast of Oman and is now en route to its destination in India.
Fewer than five ships a day have gone dark through the Strait of Hormuz since March 2, according to figures that the Journal published from intelligence firm Kpler, and it’s unclear how many of those ships were guided by the US military. Most ships traveled on the Iranian-sanctioned route, the figures show.
Cpt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US military’s Central Command, tells the Journal that the US is continually communicating and coordinating with ships that traverse the strait.
| Courtesy of Clem+Elmish4239 |
[GCAPTAIN] Roughly one-quarter of the non-Iranian large oil tankers trapped inside the Persian Gulf at the outbreak of the Iran war have managed to slip out in a slow, stealthy trickle.
Twenty-nine of the 109 bigger vessels, those capable of hauling 700,000 barrels or more, which were stranded when the Strait of Hormuz was effectively shuttered after the conflict erupted on Feb. 28 have now crossed the chokepoint, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg show.
While that flow is a fraction of the crude and oil products still locked inside the Gulf, the cargoes have been snapped up by a global market in which inventory buffers are shrinking at a record pace. And with many ships switching off instruments that broadcast their positions, the real number may well be higher.
Faced with the sporadic hostilities of the three-month conflict, the ships have had to resort to unconventional maneuvers to make the passage. Some have made the crossing under the cover of darkness as they strive to avoid the threat of rockets launched from shore. In some cases, the governments of countries taking the cargoes have been forced to lobby for the privilege.
Iran-linked ships have been excluded from the calculation, as these had free passage through Hormuz until mid-April. Most did not broadcast position signals in the Gulf even before the latest conflict erupted, complicating the tracking of Iranian flows.
Oil traders have been fixated on ships’ attempts to pass through the strait since its closure triggered the biggest energy-supply disruption in history and sent prices for vital fuels soaring. Control over the corridor is central to tortuous negotiations between the US and Iran aimed at ending the conflict.
Chevron Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said Friday that the company currently has six vessels in the Gulf that are under charter. It will be the ship owner who decides whether or not to move through the strait, Wirth said.
With ships having to proceed so cautiously, the flow of oil they’ve transported has been modest, equating to about 520,000 barrels a day — a fraction of crude and products still shuttered inside the Gulf. It’s also eclipsed by flows through the alternative pipelines being used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to divert exports away from the strait.
But in addition to providing badly needed supplies to a global market nervously watching the break-neck depletion of inventories, the successful transits also free up a portion of the global fleet that can return to the Gulf and collect cargoes once a peace agreement is struck.
Most vessels made the transit by “going dark” — switching off the Automatic Identification System used to communicate their position — with many having done so at the start of the war. Widespread interference with these signals has only clouded the picture further.
As a result, the tally of ships that made it out could be under-reported. Of those tankers yet to escape, almost 20% haven’t transmitted signals on their locations so far this month.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTES
Hormuz was declared closed by Tehran in the immediate aftermath of joint US-Israeli strikes on the country at the end of February. While Iran was initially able to continue oil exports, Washington retaliated with its own blockade on the Islamic Republic’s shipments in mid-April.
The crossings are only a fraction of the typical Hormuz transits before the war, which accounted for about a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Iran has sought to establish a virtual “toll booth” for ships crossing the strait, demanding fees of as much as $2 million for a single transit along its shore at the northern side of the waterway, between the country’s Larak and Qeshm islands. It’s not clear how successful Tehran has been in making shipowners pay up.
Other Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates considered the procedures presented by their regional rival — which has attacked their territories during their conflict — as untenable. An alternative route was possible to the south, close to Oman. Some vessels attempted a journey through the strait, only to later abort it.
The category of ships most closely watched is composed of so-called very large crude carriers — which can haul 2 million barrels of oil — and Suezmaxes, which can transport about half that volume, as well as slightly smaller Aframaxes.
Whether traffic picks up will depend on the diplomatic process. The US and Iran have reached a preliminary deal to extend a ceasefire by 60 days and discuss the future of Tehran’s nuclear program, a person with knowledge of the matter said, buoying hopes for a resolution to a conflict that has killed thousands and roiled the global economy.