The US military fired a Hellfire missile at a Botswana-flagged tanker heading toward an Iranian port on Tuesday, disabling its engine room and marking the sixth ship struck since the blockade of Iran began on April 13, Ada Derana reported citing Reuters.
US Central Command released video of the strike and identified the vessel as the M/T Lexie. “The ship’s crew ignored repeated warnings, failing to comply with directions from US forces multiple times over a 24-hour period,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “A US aircraft ultimately disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room, preventing the tanker from reaching Iran.”
The strike comes as President Donald Trump continues to press Tehran toward a peace agreement on US terms, even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned that nuclear-track negotiations could stretch over months.
CENTCOM said it has now redirected 122 vessels seeking to enter or exit Iranian ports since the blockade commenced almost two months ago. Six of those interactions have ended in vessels being disabled rather than turned away. The earlier interdictions included the M/T Tifani in the Indian Ocean and a Chinese-sanctioned tanker that tested the perimeter of the operation.
The continuing enforcement keeps the Iran sanctions architecture tightly bound to Strait of Hormuz transit, with knock-on effects on global crude flows and shipping insurance premiums. Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has cited the war-era cost premium as a key driver of its losses, with fuel import costs surging from US$186 million in January to US$521 million in May.
The Botswana flag on the Lexie is unusual — the southern African country is not a traditional flag-of-convenience jurisdiction in the Iran sanctions evasion network. The choice may reflect a tightening of options for operators seeking to register vessels bound for Iranian ports as the United States continues to expand its designation of compromised flag states.
