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The US Navy said Wednesday it had thwarted Iranian military efforts to hijack two commercial oil tankers off Oman and that heavy gunfire was used in one of the attempted seizures.
“Iranian personnel fired several long salvoes of both small arms and crew-operated weapons” targeting a merchant vessel that US officials identified as the “Richmond Voyager,” prompting a distress call around 4 a.m. local time, the authorities said Navy in a press release with. No one was injured, officials said, but “several projectiles struck the ship’s hull near the crew’s living quarters.” The tanker is registered in the Bahamas.
Above them, an American MQ-9 surveillance drone captured video of the Iranian warship’s encounter with the oil tanker. Footage released by the Navy shows multiple bolts of lightning bursting near the Richmond Voyager – what officials described as “missiles ricocheting” over the merchant ship.
Additional images released by the Navy are said to show fragments of ammunition recovered from the Richmond Voyager.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Iranian military ship, positioned within a mile of the Richmond Voyager, had ordered the commercial tanker to stop, the Navy’s press release said. The guided missile destroyer USS McFaul was dispatched to the area and forced the Iranian ship to flee, the Navy said.
The incident happened in international waters, more than 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman, as the Richmond Voyager was en route to the Arabian Sea, the Navy said.
The McFaul was responding to a similar incident about three hours earlier, involving a separate Iranian military vessel that approached a commercial oil tanker that US officials identified as TRF Moss. This incident also happened in international waters, the Navy said. The moss is registered in the Marshall Islands.
US military officials said they had increased the frequency of sea and air patrols in the region since May following a surge in Iran’s ship seizures. The Navy’s press release said that “Since 2021, Iran has harassed, attacked or seized nearly 20 international-flagged merchant vessels, posing a clear threat to regional maritime security and the global economy.”
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