U.S. Navy Disables Iranian-Flagged Cargo Ship in Gulf of Oman, Seizes Vessel

The U.S Navy fired on and disabled an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman before Marines boarded and seized the vessel, President Donald Trump said Sunday. Trump, in a Truth Social post, said that the guided missile destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian ship, the Touska, and "gave them fair warning to stop." "The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom," Trump said in the post. "Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel," the president said. He noted that the Touska is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions due to its "prior history of illegal activity." U.S. Central Command later Sunday released a video of a Spruance crew member warning the Touska in a radio transmission, "We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire." The Spruance then fired several rounds from the destroyer's 5-inch MK gun into the Touska's engine room after warning the ship's crew to evacuate that room, according to a post on X by Central Command. That post said the Touska's crew "failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period." The U.S. has been operating a naval blockade of ships entering and exiting Iranian ports since last week. The seizure is an escalation of the blockade and comes after Iran fired upon commercial vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz earlier Sunday. The strait is between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. U.S. envoys led by Vice President JD Vance were expected to travel to Pakistan on Monday for a second round of peace talks with their Iranian counterparts, a White House official told CNBC. Iran has rebuffed those talks, according to a state media report. Iran cited the ongoing blockade, which it views as a breach of the ceasefire reached by the U.S. and Iran, as one of its reasons for calling off the expected negotiations in Islamabad on Monday. Trump warned on Sunday that if Iran did not agree to the U.S.'s terms to end the conflict, he would "knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran." The Department of Defense referred CNBC to the White House in response to an inquiry seeking more information on the seizure. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.