US Fighter Jets Disable Panamanian-Flagged Merchant Vessel; Senator Murphy Publicly Challenges Rationality of Blockade Against Iran

According to Al Jazeera reports, US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement on Saturday acknowledging that a US fighter jet fired precision munitions at the Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel "Ocean Molica" (M/V Ocean Molica, also known as "Arica Sun") in the Gulf of Oman, striking the stern and "completely disabling the vessel's power" while "not harming the crew."

CENTCOM's statement said the vessel's crew "ignored repeated warnings and attempted to break through the ongoing maritime blockade against Iran," having departed "from an Iranian port" before attempting to transit the waters. Al Jazeera reported this was the fourth merchant vessel disabled by the US military since it resumed the blockade on July 14 against all vessels entering and leaving Iranian ports; during three months of "strict enforcement," the US military has forced 135 vessels to turn around and destroyed 10 oil tankers linked to what the IRGC describes as its "multi-billion-dollar shadow network." The report did not mention details regarding the cargo, operators, or crew nationality of the disabled vessels.

The operation quickly triggered open questioning domestically in the United States. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy posted on social media platform X: "What is this all for? Why should taxpayers spend billions of dollars striking merchant vessels?" He further criticized: "The obvious purpose is to gain leverage to convince the Iranians to let us pay billions to restore everything to pre-war status. What a disaster."

Al Jazeera reported that, in a standoff with the US strikes in the Gulf of Oman, Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed on the same day to have struck a liquefied petroleum gas carrier named "Sunshine" (NV Sunshine), belonging to NatWit company, south of the Strait of Hormuz, on the grounds that the vessel attempted to take an "illegal route." Iranian official media, citing a Revolutionary Guards statement, said Iranian forces had "taken over management of the Strait of Hormuz." This claim has not been independently verified.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed on Sunday that it had received a report regarding an "incident involving an oil tanker and military power" in the Gulf of Oman, and said authorities were investigating. The agency issued a separate advisory stating that an outbound oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was struck on the port side by an "unidentified projectile" and caught fire; the crew was reported safe, but the extent of damage and environmental impact remained unclear at the time. The agency also reported last Thursday that a ship was struck by multiple projectiles approximately 94 kilometers north of Qatar's north coast, causing several casualties, but did not specify the vessel's origin or exact numbers.

Al Jazeera noted that before the war, the Strait of Hormuz carried approximately one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transportation, serving as the only maritime passage to and from the Persian Gulf oil-producing region. Since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February, attacks on merchant vessels in these waters have continued to increase; Iran has attempted to force vessels to transit via routes it designates, but a growing number of merchant vessels are risking alternative routes along the southern coast of the strait.