U.S. forces disabled the Botswana-flagged oil tanker M/T Lexie as it sailed toward Iran’s Kharg Island, giving the Iran blockade crisis a fresh named-vessel incident just days after the Lian Star strike.
U.S. Central Command said in a DVIDS release that American forces enforced blockade measures against the unladen tanker on June 2 while it was transiting international waters toward Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal. CENTCOM said the crew ignored repeated warnings and failed to comply with U.S. directions multiple times over a 24-hour period.
The enforcement step was kinetic. According to CENTCOM, a U.S. aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room, disabling the tanker and preventing it from reaching Iran. CENTCOM said the blockade of maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports began April 13, and that U.S. forces have now disabled six commercial vessels and redirected 122 others while the ceasefire continues.
The BBC also reported that the U.S. military released footage purporting to show the strike and said Iran had not publicly commented on the incident. The BBC noted that it had contacted Botswana’s government for comment, an important detail because the vessel was sailing under Botswana’s flag even though the operation was tied to Iranian-port access.
The ship itself may carry added sanctions significance. gCaptain reported that the disabled tanker appears to match the LEXI, also known as LEXIE, a former Cameroon-flagged crude carrier that the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in March 2025 for allegedly moving Iranian crude through ship-to-ship transfers. gCaptain said no injuries were immediately reported.
That makes this more than another blockade statistic. List25 already covered the Lian Star case on May 30, when U.S. forces disabled a Gambia-flagged cargo ship headed toward an Iranian port. The Lexie incident is a new named tanker, a new flag-state wrinkle, and a higher redirected-vessel count, showing that blockade enforcement is still active even while U.S. and Iranian officials argue publicly over whether negotiations are alive.
For commercial shipping, the signal remains blunt: a ceasefire has not replaced the military rules governing Iranian-port traffic. Ships approaching Iran can still face direct U.S. enforcement, and every new interdiction raises the risk that a local engine-room strike becomes a wider diplomatic problem for flag states, insurers, crews, and energy markets watching the Strait of Hormuz.