US Central Command says an MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of the Panama-flagged tanker M/V Vela Nova on Tuesday, disabling its steering as it tried to cross the Gulf of Oman toward an unnamed Iranian port. Centcom says the crew ignored repeated warnings before the strike, and the vessel is no longer heading to Iran.
The strike is part of a US blockade of Iranian ports that began after failed efforts to end the war Washington and Israel started in late February. Iran retaliated with strikes on Israel and Gulf allies and has largely shut the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and gas shipments.
Centcom says it has now redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled three, and boarded two since the blockade began, though it did not disclose casualties from Tuesday's strike. Separately, Yemen's government says Houthi strikes on a cargo ship in the Red Sea killed six people and wounded ten, in what appears to be the group's first deadly hit on shipping since the war began.
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