Middle East & North Africa
CENTCOM disables the M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman: fifth merchant ship stopped under the U.S. blockade of Iran
U.S. Central Command says a U.S. military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of the St. Kitts-flagged cargo ship M/V Huda on Nov. 7 after its crew ignored repeated warnings.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces disabled a commercial cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman on Nov. 7, after the vessel’s civilian crew allegedly ignored repeated warnings and tried several times to break the U.S. naval blockade of Iran. The command named the ship as the St. Kitts-flagged M/V Huda.
According to CENTCOM, a U.S. military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of the ship. Before the strike, U.S. forces directed the crew to leave the targeted spaces on board. The command says the cargo vessel was trying to leave regional waters after visiting an Iranian port. CENTCOM did not report any casualties in its statement, and the account of the incident comes only from the U.S. side.
The blockade in numbers, according to CENTCOM
The command used the announcement to summarise enforcement since July. It says U.S. forces have redirected 147 commercial vessels that complied with instructions, and have disabled five merchant ships that refused to comply, the M/V Huda being the latest. CENTCOM adds that it has previously destroyed another 10 Iranian commercial oil tankers that, it says, were part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ multibillion-dollar shadow network. These figures are CENTCOM’s own and have not been independently verified.
“CENTCOM continues to strictly enforce America’s naval blockade against Iran,” the statement reads, and it urges all mariners transiting near Iranian coastal areas or surrounding waters to heed blockade warnings from U.S. forces.
Why it matters
The Gulf of Oman is the approach to the Strait of Hormuz, the passage through which a large share of the region’s seaborne trade moves, and the blockade has been a central element of the U.S. pressure campaign on Tehran. Geopolitiki has followed it since its early weeks; our earlier report, CENTCOM marks 100 days of Iran blockade, claiming $25 billion in crude kept off the market as the IRGC threatens US bases, sets out the command’s earlier claims, and our Iran war timeline 2026: Epic Fury, Hormuz and the US blockade gives the wider background.
The announcement came on the same day CENTCOM said it had set up a task force to disrupt Iranian ground transit routes used for illegal shipments. Iran has not, in the material available at the time of writing, responded to the Nov. 7 incident.