(Noga Ami-rav/Stars and Stripes)
The Navy said it intervened Wednesday when Iranian naval ships tried to seize two oil tankers and fired on one of them in the Gulf of Oman.
“The U.S. Navy immediately responded and prevented those seizures,” said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet.
The Navy took action after a distress signal was sent by at least one of the commercial tankers, both of which were transiting in international waters.
An Iranian ship fired on the second tanker, but no one was injured, Hawkins said. The Iranian ships backed away following the Navy response, he added.
There was no immediate Iranian comment on the incidents.
At about 1 a.m., an Iranian naval vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker TRF Moss in the Gulf of Oman, the Navy said in a statement.
The Iranian ship left when the destroyer USS McFaul arrived. The Navy also deployed an MQ-9 Reaper drone and a P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, the statement said.
The second incident happened about three hours later and involved the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager, managed by the U.S. oil company Chevron.
The tanker was more than 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman, heading toward the Arabian Sea when another Iranian naval vessel came within a mile and hailed it to stop, the Navy said.
Prior to the arrival of U.S. naval forces, “Iranian personnel fired multiple, long bursts from both small arms and crew-served weapons,” according to the statement.
Several rounds hit the tanker’s hull near crew living spaces, the Navy said. The Iranian ship also left when McFaul arrived.
The quick actions of the McFaul and the NAVCENT team were instrumental in preventing Iran from seizing the tankers, said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT/5th Fleet.
“We remain vigilant and ready to protect navigational rights in these critical waters,” Cooper said.
In recent months, the U.S. has stepped up its rotation of ships and aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz, to include Navy destroyers, Coast Guard cutters and unmanned systems.
The effort follows U.S. accusations that Iran has harassed civilian vessels repeatedly in recent months.
On June 4, the destroyer USS McFaul and the British navy frigate HMS Lancaster responded to a distress call from a cargo ship traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. The crew said three fast-attack boats were approaching and following the vessel. The British ship launched a helicopter, and the Navy sent a P-8A plane.
The three boats, reportedly carrying armed gunmen from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, left after an hour, U.S. officials said at the time.
An Iranian official said the boats were responding to the distress signal.
On April 27, Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker it said was involved in a collision with another boat. That action came days after the U.S. redirected a tanker carrying Iranian crude to China as part of an effort to enforce economic sanctions leveled against Tehran.
A U.S. official said Iran’s seizure of the Marshall Islands tanker was retaliatory. Iranian forces seized another tanker May 3, saying it was due to a judicial order.
Many of the incidents have occurred in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which 20% of the world’s crude oil passes. Since 2021, Iran has harassed, attacked or seized about 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels, the Navy said.
U.S.-Iranian tensions have risen steadily since the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers and restored crippling sanctions.
Iran has responded by ramping up its nuclear activities, which it says are purely peaceful, and is also providing armed drones to Russia for its war against Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
