CENTCOM (US Central Command) disabled the Gambian-flagged bulk carrier M/V Lian Star in The Gulf of Oman around Saturday 30 May, firing a Hellfire missile into its engine room after the crew ignored more than 20 blockade warnings1. The Hellfire is a US precision air-to-ground missile. CENTCOM is the US combatant command that has run the Hormuz blockade since mid-April.
CENTCOM disabled the ship rather than seizing it, leaving its civilian crew aboard a powerless hull, and its cumulative redirection count reached 116 vessels. Every prior interdiction had turned ships away or boarded them.
This is the first time the 90-day blockade has crossed into disabling a commercial hull by munition. The rules of engagement have hardened beyond the Bandar Abbas strikes on Iranian naval targets, which hit military boats and a missile site rather than a merchant ship.
The shift changes the risk calculus for civilian shipping near the blockade zone. A disabled hull adrift with crew aboard also widens Washington's legal exposure under maritime law, where a powerless ship in a busy strait is itself a hazard to other traffic.
