Iranian forces targeted three container ships on Wednesday, seizing two, global security monitors and the country’s Revolutionary Guards said that the latest incidents threaten a crucial trade route in the Middle East war.
British maritime security agency UKMTO said an Iranian gunboat fired at a container ship off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, while a ship off Iran was also fired upon.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said separately that their naval forces stopped two ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz and directed them to Iranian waters.
It accused them of breaching its blockade of the route, imposed in the Middle East war that erupted on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The master of a container ship reported that one IRGC gunboat approached the vessel and then fired upon it, causing heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact was reported,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO) said.
It added that the incident took place 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman and all the 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.
Iranian news agency Tasnim said the ship had ignored warnings from Iran’s armed forces.
The IGRC said to its naval force on Thursday morning that "it identified and stopped in the Strait of Hormuz two violating ships."
The IRGC's naval forces seized the vessels and directed them to the Iranian coast, according to a statement.
The IRGC named the two ships seized as the MSC-Francesca and the Epaminondas, Iranian broadcaster IRIB said on Telegram.
The Francesca allegedly had ties to Israel, while the Epaminondas lacked the necessary permits and had been tampering with navigation systems.
Ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic showed the two vessels, both container ships, stopped near the Iranian coast on Wednesday.
The head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization condemned the attacks and seizures as unacceptable.
“I once again call for these reckless actions to cease and for any ships and innocent seafarers to be released immediately,” the body’s Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez wrote on X.
In a separate incident, a cargo ship eight nautical miles west of Iran was fired upon and stopped in the water, UKMTO said, adding there was no reported damage to the vessel.
Vanguard identified it as the Panama-flagged container ship Euphoria, which it said was “transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz”. Iranian media also reported the ship had been targeted.
MarineTraffic later showed the Euphoria had left the strait and was headed to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
It said that the Epaminondas and Francesca were operated by Swiss-based shipping company MSC. The company did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Epaminondas was deployed on a shipping line connecting India and the US East Coast, with intermediate calls in the United Arab Emirates.
The Francesca was operating on a route linking India, the Gulf and the Mediterranean, MarineTraffic added.
Shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has been heavily restricted by Iran since the start of the war with Israel and the United States, while the US military is enforcing a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the truce with Iran would be extended after it first took effect on 8 April.
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