US Navy: Second merchant vessel seized within a week by Iran

Naval Forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized the second oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the US Navy said in a statement published on its official webpage.

According to the statement, Iran’s paramilitary group, Revolutionary Guard, seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker at 6 pm, local time.

The statement said that the US Navy’s Bahrain based Fifth Fleet said that naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked the Panama-flagged “Niovi” vessel.

The vessel was transiting toward Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the statement added.

“The vessel was subsequently forced to reverse course into Iranian territorial waters in what the Fifth Fleet described as an “unlawful seizure”, it said.

Last week, Iran also seized an oil tanker in international waters in the Gulf of Oman.

READ: Iran Army says seized oil tanker collided with Iranian vessel