U.S. forces stopped the Gambia-flagged cargo ship Lian Star in the Gulf of Oman after it allegedly ignored repeated warnings and tried to reach an Iranian port, adding a sharp new enforcement incident to the Iran blockade crisis.
PBS NewsHour, carrying Associated Press reporting, said U.S. Central Command accused the vessel of ignoring more than 20 warnings overnight. According to the report, the U.S. military fired a missile into the ship’s engine room, leaving it adrift in the Gulf of Oman. A U.S. official told AP that American forces had not boarded the ship.
The new detail is not just that another vessel was stopped. It is the method and the count. PBS/AP reported that U.S. forces have now stopped six ships accused of trying to breach the blockade, allowed one to proceed, and redirected 116 other ships. That moves the story beyond earlier blockade warnings into another named ship being physically disabled during enforcement.
The incident lands while the diplomatic track is still unresolved. Al Jazeera reported Saturday that Iran’s armed forces reasserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, warned commercial and military vessels to follow Iranian-designated routes, and said violations would put passage at serious risk. The same report said Tehran denied that any final deal with Washington had been reached.
That overlap is what makes the Lian Star case dangerous. Washington is still enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports. Tehran is still claiming authority over Hormuz traffic. Commercial ships are stuck between two systems of control, and the latest U.S. action shows that a disputed destination or ignored order can quickly become a disabling strike.
Al Jazeera also reported that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the United States is “more than capable” of restarting the war if a satisfactory agreement is not reached. CENTCOM, according to the same report, said U.S. forces remain present and vigilant across the region. That framing keeps military pressure alive even as officials discuss a possible 60-day extension to the ceasefire and a path to reopen the strait.
For shippers, insurers, and governments watching Hormuz, the signal is blunt: the blockade is still active, enforcement is still escalating case by case, and a broader deal has not yet replaced the military rules shaping traffic in the Gulf of Oman.