A U.S. special operations team boarded a cargo ship hundreds of miles off the coast of Sri Lanka last month, seizing a shipment of military documents being transported from China to Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The operation, described as a rare and prohibited maritime raid, aimed to prevent Iran from rebuilding its military arsenal. Troops under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command surrounded the vessel, stopped it from moving, and confiscated the shipment. U.S. intelligence agencies had reportedly been tracking the cargo for months.
This raid forms part of the Pentagon’s ongoing efforts to disrupt Iran’s military procurement, particularly its missile programs, following joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities in June. In a separate move, U.S. forces also seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast reportedly transporting oil to Iran.
The Wall Street Journal noted that the raids highlight the Trump administration’s use of aggressive maritime tactics, rarely employed in recent years. Attempts by U.S. agencies to contact Iran and China for comment went unanswered.
Meanwhile, Iran reportedly seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman early yesterday, carrying 18 crew members from India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, the vessel was transporting six million liters of illegal diesel fuel. Iran denied that the seizure was retaliatory, stating last month that another tanker it seized in the Gulf was carrying illegal goods.
