Iran says seized two ships seeking to cross Strait of Hormuz

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday their naval forces had seized two container ships seeking to cross the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump announcing he was extending a ceasefire to allow more time for peace talks.

UK-based maritime security monitors confirmed that three commercial vessels had reported incidents involving gunboats in the strait, the international gateway for the Gulf oil and gas industry which US and Iranian forces are battling to control.

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval force this morning identified and stopped in the Strait of Hormuz two violating ships," the Guards said in a statement.

"The two offending ships... were seized by the IRGC's naval forces and directed to the Iranian coast."

They identified one ship as the Panama-flagged container ship MSC Francesca and the Liberia-flagged Epaminodas. The tracking site Marine Traffic showed the last known positions of both vessels closer to the Iranian coast of the strait, northeast of Oman.

Earlier, the British maritime security monitor UKMTO said one container ship reported it was fired upon by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) boat 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, causing damage to the bridge but no casualties.

Separately, a third ship was fired upon and stopped in the water eight nautical miles west of the Iranian coast, UKMTO said, without identifying the attackers.

British Security firm Vanguard Tech identified it as the Panama-flagged container ship Euphoria, which it said was "transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz".

The US Navy is attempting to block vessels heading to and from Iranian ports, while Tehran has said vessels must seek permission to leave or enter the Gulf through Hormuz, a route that in peacetime accounts for a fifth of the world's oil and gas exports along with other vital commodities.

“Stateless and sanctioned”

The US Defense Department said Tuesday that US forces had intercepted and boarded a "stateless sanctioned" vessel. AFP has identified the ship as one linked to Iranian activity. Both sides accuse the other of ceasefire breaches.

Before the latest attacks, Trump had said he had pushed back the end of the two-week truce following a request by Pakistani mediators and to give Iran's "fractured" leadership time to form a proposal.

The ceasefire has brought some respite to a region engulfed for weeks in war but, with no agreement yet in place, uncertainty remains and brought little relief to global markets.

Trump said the US blockade of Iran's ports would continue, while Pakistani mediators try to revive a dialogue.

Iran has all but shut the strait in the seven weeks since the United States and ‘Israel’ launched a massive attack on the Islamic republic that plunged the Middle East into war.