Iranian forces attack, seize two cargo ships near Strait of Hormuz

by · UPI

April 22 (UPI) -- Iran's military said Wednesday that it seized two cargo ships near the Strait of Hormuz amid a conflict over the waterway.

Meanwhile, a top Iranian official said in a post on X that the U.S. blockade violates the cease-fire, which President Donald Trump extended indefinitely Tuesday. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliamentary speaker and top negotiator in the first round of talks in Pakistan, wrote that "a full cease-fire only has meaning if it is not violated by a naval blockade and the holding hostage of the global economy," NBC News reported.

An Iranian gunboat attacked and badly damaged the Epaminondas, a Greek-owned container ship, close to the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. A news website connected with Iran's national security council said the ship "ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces."

However, the master of the container ship reported that the vessel was in the western approaches to the strait, about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Oman when an Iranian gunboat approached and opened fire without warning, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said in an alert.

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The ship sustained "heavy damage to the bridge" but there was no fire or environmental impact, and the crew was safe.

No attempt to make VHF radio contact was made before the gunboat fired on the vessel, UKMTO said.

In a second incident, which occurred about 8 nautical miles west of the coast of Iran, the container ship Euporia reported being fired on, the BBC reported. It said the ship is owned by a United Arab Emirates company, and that it had been en route to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

"Crew are safe and accounted for," UKMTO said.

"UKMTO is aware of high levels of activity in the SoH area and encourages vessels to report any suspicious activity," the agency added.

Maritime intelligence firm Vanguard told the BBC that a third vessel, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, sailing outbound from the Persian Gulf, had been attacked and damaged 6 nautical miles off the coast of Iran.

The company said the container ship's hull and accommodation decks were damaged when it was interdicted by the Iranian military and "instructed to drop anchor" as it was headed eastwards out of the Hormuz Strait into the Gulf of Oman.

The Iranian navy said in a statement that it had "seized" both the Epaminondas and the MSC Francesca and had taken them to the Iranian coast.

The attacks came hours after Trump announced an indefinite extension to a cease-fire with Iran that had been due to expire on Wednesday but that the United States' blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.

The naval blockade, which began April 13, saw a U.S. warship open fire on an Iranian container ship in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday before U.S. marines boarded and seized the vessel.

Oil prices, which had fallen on the news of the cease-fire extension, rose Wednesday with the international benchmark Brent crude contract again testing the $100 a barrel ceiling in late-morning trade in London while West Texas Intermediate was changing hands at $90.21, up 54 cents a barrel.

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