The US military has hit the Lian Star cargo ship heading for an Iranian port with a Hellfire missile, US Central Command said.
The Associated Press, citing sources, reported that the Gambian-flagged Lian Star ignored several warnings from the US military, then used aircraft to "immobilize" vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
“A US aircraft disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the engine room after the Lian Star crew refused to comply“, the command said in a statement.
Since the start of the naval blockade of Iran on April 13, the US military has disabled five merchant ships and diverted 116.
A US Boeing P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft was flying over neutral waters in the Persian Gulf, close to Iranian airspace, a source in the air traffic control services in the region said.
He noted that the aircraft was flying at an altitude of just over 8 km, and a few hours earlier a US Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tanker aircraft, traveling to the Persian Gulf from Tel Aviv, had circled the area for several times.
The source also noted that a Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton drone of the US Air Force, capable of monitoring relatively large areas of land and sea, was previously registered to fly over the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The aircraft, which carries out reconnaissance missions for 10-15 hours, can, among other things, complement the work of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft.