“SENTCOM”: 92 Vessels Redirected as Part of Maritime Blockade on Iran

Al-Taj News – U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday that U.S. forces had redirected 92 commercial vessels, disabled three vessels and boarded two others as part of enforcing the maritime blockade imposed on Iran, as of September 6.

The U.S. Central Command said the measures are aimed at ensuring strict compliance with the blockade, as U.S. forces continue their maritime operations in the region’s territorial waters.

A photo released by the U.S. Central Command showed an F-35A stealth fighter aircraft belonging to the U.S. Air Force patrolling over the region’s waters, as operations to enforce the maritime blockade on Iran continued.

Reciprocal strikes between the United States and Iran targeting ships and oil tankers have escalated, with around 10 targets hit in a single day, in a development that could signal the beginning of a new phase of the conflict.

As the United States threatened to “sink” Iranian tankers if Tehran continued targeting U.S. Navy vessels, Iran announced Sunday that it had targeted a U.S. boat in the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. military targeted three oil tankers in Gulf waters.

The reciprocal strikes come amid stalled diplomatic efforts to end the war and Washington’s declaration of an “economic war” on Iran, which included tightening sanctions imposed on it and on countries that deal with it, with the aim of “economically strangling it.”

The United States had announced an expansion of secondary sanctions that could be imposed on entities and countries maintaining trade relations with Iran around the world as part of the “Economic Outcast” operation against Iran, at a time when Washington is significantly escalating its economic pressure on Tehran as the war approaches its sixth month.