Iranian patrol vessels fired upon and boarded a U.S.-protected cargo ship as it sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
The Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, was going through the strait when it was contacted by about six Iranian patrol vessels and was ordered to further enter Iranian waters. It is not clear if the Tigris had inadvertently entered Iranian waters and then was approached.
When the shipmaster of the Tigris refused, the patrol vessels sent warning shots across its bow, said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren.
The shipmaster sent out a distress signal, which U.S. Naval Forces Central Command responded to by ordering the USS Farragut destroyer to respond as quickly as possible.
No Americans are reported aboard the ship, Warren said. The ship, still in Iranian waters, is in the vicinity of Larak Island, an Iranian island in the strait.
The U.S. has full authority for the security and defense of the Marshall Islands, according to the State Department.
The Pentagon would not speculate whether the seizure of the Maersk vessel was in retaliation for last week’s standoff of a convoy of Iranian cargo ships that were reportedly providing supplies and equipment to Houthi rebels in Yemen, and nine U.S. warships. Ultimately, the Iranian convoy turned away from Yemen and began a return trip toward Iran.
The location of the Maersk Tigris’ seizure may complicate any U.S. response. At one point in the transit, all ships must go through Iranian waters to get into the shipping channel. It was at this point the ship was intercepted, according to current reports.
The Pentagon said all vessels going through this portion of the Strait of Hormuz do so under the practice of “innocent passage” with Iran — an agreement that allows international commercial shipping traffic to move goods through those waters safely, as long as it is not “prejudicial to good order, peace and security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
That principle, which Iran may have violated with the Tigris, would keep the U.S. destroyer Farragut from entering those waters in response.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command also has sent a maritime surveillance aircraft, likely a P-3 Orion or P-8 Poseidon, to monitor the Maersk Tigris and the approaching Farragut, the Pentagon said.
• This article was originally published at 11:44 a.m. and has been updated.
