US military says it boarded cargo ship suspected of heading to Iran during blockade but released it

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has boarded another commercial vessel during blockade of Iran’s ports, but unlike in previous cases, the ship was ultimately allowed to carry on its way.

U.S. Central Command said on social media that Marines boarded the Blue Star III on Tuesday but “released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming its voyage would not include an Iranian port call.” An accompanying video showed American forces fast-roping from a helicopter onto the vessel.

The Blue Star is at least the fourth merchant ship to be boarded since the Trump administration began the blockade of Iranian shipping more than two weeks ago, but it is the first to not be taken into U.S. custody. The U.S. blockade aims to squeeze Iran amid a ceasefire in the war as Tehran’s cutoff of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments, ripples across the global economy.

Data from ship tracking websites shows that the Blue Star departed the Pakistani port of Qasim and was en route to the port of Sohar, Oman.

The military offered no information about what prompted it to suspect the ship. U.S. Central Command has become more aggressive in making the case that the blockade works amid skepticism from outside experts.

The military command that oversees the Middle East has not only provided regular updates on the number of merchant ships it says the blockade has turned around but also claimed Tuesday that “U.S. forces cut off economic trade going into and coming out of Iran.”

Shortly after the blockade began, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the enforcement actions would extend beyond Iranian waters and the area under control of U.S. Central Command.

The military also detailed an expansive list of goods that it considers contraband, declaring that it will board, search and seize them from merchant vessels “regardless of location.”

A notice says any “goods that are destined for an enemy and that may be susceptible to use in armed conflict” are “subject to capture at any place beyond neutral territory.”

However, shipping experts like Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University, have said Iranian ships have several ways to sneak through the blockade, including spoofing their location tracking data or traveling through Pakistani territorial waters.

Mercogliano also noted that the sheer volume of shipping traffic that the military needs to screen is a challenging task.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the boarding of the Blue Star on Tuesday “demonstrates our thorough enforcement of the blockade.”