The U.S. military has intercepted and redirected three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, news agencies reported.Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran’s trade by sea while Iran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle East Gulf.
The U.S. has diverted at least three Iranian-flagged oil tankers in recent days; Reuters quoted two US and Indian shipping as well as two separate Western maritime security sources as having said.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interceptions.
One of the vessels was the Iranian-flagged Deep Sea supertanker, which was part loaded with crude and last seen on its public tracking transponder off Malaysia’s coast a week ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The smaller Iranian-flagged Sevin, which had a maximum capacity of 1 million barrels and was carrying 65% of its load, was also intercepted. The vessel was last seen off Malaysia’s coast a month ago, ship tracking data showed.
The Iranian-flagged supertanker Dorena was also intercepted, fully loaded with 2 million barrels of crude, and last seen off the coast of southern India three days ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday in a post on X, that the Dorena has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after attempting to violate the blockade.