US Navy helicopter fires two missiles at a cargo ship in the US blockade of Iran, the third vessel disabled

A US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at the engine room of the Panama-flagged cargo vessel M/V Vela Nova in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, according to US Central Command (Centcom). It is the third non-compliant vessel Centcom says it has disabled, the 55th it has redirected, and the second boarded, since 11 August, after the civilian crew ignored repeated warnings.

The US and Israel have been at war with Iran since 28 February 2026. Iran has retaliated across the Gulf and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG moved before the war; prices have fluctuated wildly since. A ceasefire collapsed in June, and mediators have not reopened the strait.

Centcom framed the strike as disabling the ship's "steering gear", while the BBC's report says the missiles hit the engine room. The command did not name the Iranian destination port, gave no casualty report, and Iran has not commented. A unilateral US blockade against a third-flagged civilian vessel also raises legal-authority questions.

In a parallel strike the same day, Yemen's internationally recognised government said six people were killed and ten injured in Houthi strikes on a Red Sea cargo ship; the Houthis said the vessel carried Saudi military equipment, in what the government called the first deadly Houthi ship strike of the war.