Illustrative image. (U.S. Central Command)
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on August 11 that its forces disabled the steering gear of a Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel as it allegedly tried to violate the naval blockade by sailing toward an Iranian port.
“A US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova’s engine room after the ship’s civilian crew ignored repeated warnings from American forces,” the command said in a statement.
CENTCOM confirmed that the vessel is no longer transiting to Iran and stressed that the maritime restriction remains in full effect.
The command has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three non-compliant ships, and boarded two others, as of August 11.
Earlier in the day, maritime security firm Vanguard said the Vela Nova was struck by a missile fired from a helicopter while transiting westbound through the Gulf of Oman about 71 nautical miles from the coast of Pakistan.
“The missile struck the vessel, causing a fire that was subsequently extinguished,” Vanguard said, adding that all 17 crew were accounted for.
A separate report from The Wall Street Journal said the ship appeared to be trying to move its crew to another civilian vessel.
President Donald Trump said on the same day that he does not trust Iran and claimed that the U.S. currently has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz.
“I don’t trust Iran. Why — are you saying I trust Iran!? I’m the last person to trust Iran,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland following his trip to Ohio.
“They’ve lied to me constantly,” he continued.
“We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now. They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it,” he added.
The escalation by the U.S. came despite an announcement by Pakistan’s defense minister that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is close. Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg that the U.S. and Iran are “close to some sort of arrangement” over the waterway, which has been the sticking point that has stalled talks between the two warring sides.
Meanwhile, Iran maintains a tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a checkpoint for around 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just eight vessels on August 11 — the lowest daily count since August 5 — as owners steered clear amid ongoing Middle East hostilities, according to Kpler data.
That’s below the 10-day average of roughly 12. Only one vessel, a coal carrier, exited the strait; the other seven were inbound, all via the Iranian route.
LSEG data put August 11 transits at 11, down from 14 the day before. Traffic has collapsed from the roughly 130–140 ships that typically passed through before Iran closed the waterway following the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began February 28.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
i would much rather see someone come after netanyahu and annex daraa, damascus, sweida, and the golan heights to israel. it would certainly be wonderful if the syrians started losing territory and zionism expanded into a huuuuuuuuuuge belt. so big that in the end, the italians could move meloni and all of fratelli d’italiathere, all of afd and the americans could move all the maga and kkk. we should catch all of this and move it to the golan so that the world can be saved
from the biggest thieves and khazars from khazaria.to damascus, because that’s where the genocidal monotheistic religion that is destroying the entire human race and the entire planet developed. afd and maga should live there in the golan, not do harm to europe and america.