Ships report attacks as Iran closes strait of Hormuz.

[Ihatetomatoes]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/18/middle-east-crisis-live-iran-warns-it-will-close-strait-of-hormuz-if-us-blockade-continues

Closed again

A senior US official told Axios that unless there is a breakthrough in peace talks, it appears that the war could reopen within days. There is still no firm date for negotiations to resume this weekend, despite Trump’s hopes to end the conflict before the ceasefire expires on Tuesday.

It's all getting very messy ... just have to hope the face to face talks do go ahead on Monday as planned (according to Trump) and that they are productive.

Yes apparently an Indian tanker that thought it had the go ahead was fired on and told it didn't.

Id be so interested to undertsnd the war gaming going on here. Eg are there USA drones watching where they are firing upon ships and can they locate them and take them out now or in future ?
Can they do dummy ships for firing on and again locate where they are being fired on and taken them out ?

Can the USA or whoever literally have military craft going along side the shipd to defend them and if they get fired on they can fire back with air support ??

Worst case scenario can the USA bomb the whole cost line where they are firing from

The USA I feel quite rightly don't want Iran to get arms shipments etc so they will hold their blockade .

BBC Security Correspondent says there is in effect a double blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranians say they are targeting any shipping trying to get through the vital waterway while the Americans are imposing their naval blockade on all Iran’s Gulf ports.

In normal times you have about 140 ships passing both ways through the Strait to collect oil, gas, fertiliser and other products.

But only a trickle of ships has been getting through since the conflict started. Iran is insisting all maritime traffic goes up a new route set by them to be inspected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy and in some cases pay a toll.

That is unacceptable to the international shipping community.

It would be like imposing a toll on the English Channel so any ships coming down from the North Sea would have to stop off at Folkestone or Calais and be inspected.

The distance of the waterway is the same as the English Channel at the shortest navigable part of the Strait of Hormuz.

Everything has ground to a standstill until the US and Iran agree on talks.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cly90l3ln30t

The lasted trump tweet says they fired on French and English ships ?
I saw it was Indian ship.

They did fire at an Indian-flagged ship.

Now a French and British ship too, according to Trump.

Sky news it's giving an interesting breakdown. The mines they are are using the irg can easily be cleared by the USA navy but it's the threat of attack as soon as they get near.

The irg has a mosquito fleet small ,rapid can have some sort of launcher on then and they can out weigh the USA with quantity over quality.

The area of the mines is in omani waters and means all shipping is pushed closer to Iran.

Reported by the BBC & other sources that overnight the US has intercepted & seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship attempting to get past its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Trump says the ship was given “fair warning to stop” in the Gulf of Oman but refused so the navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room”. Trump adds that the ship is in US custody now.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them".

"The TOUSKA is under US Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what's on board!"

US Central Command later released footage it said showed a naval vessel intercepting a cargo ship. In the footage, a gun can be seen firing in the direction of the cargo ship.

According to a statement carried on state media outlets, a spokesperson for Iran's top military headquarters, Khatam al-Anbiya, said the US in "violation of the ceasefire opened fire on one of Iran's commercial vessels in the waters of the Sea of Oman, disabled its navigation system, and boarded it" by "deploying" marines.

"Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond to and retaliate for this act of armed piracy by the US Navy," reads the statement.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c239500dx8ro

Pentagon says US forces boarded 'sanctioned' tanker overnight

The Pentagon says US forces boarded a sanctioned tanker overnight "without incident" in the Indo-Pacific region in efforts to "disrupt illicit networks" supporting Iran.

In a post on X, the US Department of War says it "conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the stateless sanctioned M/T Tifani without incident".

The department shared this update with pictures and videos of the operation.
The department says it continues to "pursue global maritime enforcement efforts to disrupt illicit networks and interdict sanctioned vessels providing material support to Iran - anywhere they operate".

"International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels," it adds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx297218m9vt

EU agrees to widen sanctions against Iran to include Strait of Hormuz

EU countries have agreed to widen sanctions against Iran to include those responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says.

Kallas added she asked foreign affairs ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg to bolster the EU’s naval mission in the Middle East, which is currently protecting ships from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group in the Red Sea.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/21/iran-war-live-tehran-shuns-talks-trump-says-us-blockade-to-remain

Three ships ‘attacked in Strait of Hormuz’

Three ships have been attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports.

The vessels are understood to be the Euphoria, Epaminondas, and MSC Francesca, vessel-tracking data indicate.

Euphoria and MSC Francesca are Panama-flagged container ships, while Epaminondas is a Liberian-flagged ship.

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/22/iran-war-latest-news-trump-israel-strait-of-hormuz2/

US says it has directed 31 ships to turn around or return to port since blockade started

US Central Command said late on Wednesday it has "directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port" since its blockade of Iranian ports began.

It said most of the ships were oil tankers and had "complied with US directions".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called the blockade one of the "main obstacles" to "genuine negotiations" with the US.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0mjev4kn9jt