The U.S. Navy followed through on a threat it had been making for a week. A guided-missile destroyer intercepted an Iranian cargo ship in the Arabian Sea, fired three shots into its engine room, and sent Marines down from helicopters to board it.
Now the ship belongs to whoever a court says it belongs to.
The destroyer was the USS Spruance, a 500-foot Arleigh Burke-class warship homeported in San Diego. Its 5-inch deck gun has a 15-mile range and fires up to 20 rounds a minute.
The Spruance warned the Iranian container ship - the M/V Touska - for six hours while it steamed toward the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. When the Touska kept going, the Navy hit it with three rounds after telling the crew to evacuate the engine room.
Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit came in by helicopter to take control of the ship. The vessel is now in U.S. custody.
Under old maritime law, a warship can seize a vessel trying to run a blockade. The ship then goes through a "prize court" - basically a legal hearing to decide who owns it now.
"If they choose to keep it for the long term, it would need to go through a prize court, which would need to be established," Jennifer Parker of the Lowy Institute told CNN. Think of it as eminent domain, but for boats in a war zone.
The Touska's owner - a Tehran-based shipping company - has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018. Its last port call was Port Klang, Malaysia. Before that, it was running routes between China and Iran.
Iran has promised retaliation and hasn't confirmed whether it'll show up to peace talks in Islamabad this week. The Touska's crew could be repatriated or detained, depending on their nationalities. And the cargo - still unknown publicly - will shape what happens next.
One ship. Three shots. A much bigger question about whether any deal is still on the table.
Source: CNN
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