{"id":12079,"date":"2026-04-20T03:49:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/20\/us-military-seized-iranian-flagged-container-ship-trump-says-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:49:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:49:40","slug":"us-military-seized-iranian-flagged-container-ship-trump-says-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/20\/us-military-seized-iranian-flagged-container-ship-trump-says-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US military seized Iranian-flagged container ship, Trump says – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The US military<\/a> took custody of an Iranian<\/a>-flagged container ship that attempted to get past an American blockade near the strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump<\/a> announced on Sunday, leading Tehran to accuse him of violating the fragile ceasefire between the countries.<\/p>\n

In a social media post<\/a>, Trump said that an \u201cIranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA\u201d tried to get past the US naval blockade, \u201cand it did not go well for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump said that a US navy guided missile destroyer had warned the Touska to stop in the Gulf of Oman, but the vessel did not. \u201c[Our] Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room,\u201d Trump said, adding that US marines now have custody of the vessel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity,\u201d Trump added. The ship is on the treasury department\u2019s list<\/a> of sanctioned vessels.<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

Iran\u2019s military vowed to respond and accused the United States of having \u201cviolated the ceasefire\u201d that has been in place since 8 April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military<\/a>,\u201d said a spokesperson for the military\u2019s central command centre, Khatam Al-Anbiya, cited by ISNA news agency.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media also reported that Tehran had rejected new peace<\/a> talks, citing the ongoing blockade, threatening rhetoric, and Washington\u2019s shifting positions and \u201cexcessive demands\u201d.<\/p>\n

Video posted on social media<\/a> by the US defense department later showed the interception of the ship by US forces. The video includes audio of the container ship\u2019s crew being warned that they will be fired on if they refused to stop. \u201cVacate your engine room,\u201d a US sailor can be heard saying. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to subject you to disabling fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video then shows the USS Spruance firing on the Touska.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
<\/svg><\/span>US navy ship fires on vessel trying to get past blockade<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/gu-island><\/p>\n

The cargo ship was stopped near Iran\u2019s border with Pakistan, and is more than 900ft long, according to the tracking website Marine Traffic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Iranian government has not yet commented.<\/p>\n

The latest military action by the US raises new questions about the possibility of extending a ceasefire<\/a> between the two warring nations.<\/p>\n

Trump had previously announced<\/a> that US officials would be headed to Pakistan on Monday for more talks with Iranian leaders about the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Touska had previously left Port Klang, a major port in Malaysia, when the vessel then attempted to move past the US blockade, according to tracking information from TankerTrackers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US military took custody of an Iranian-flagged container ship that attempted to get past an American blockade near the strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump announced on Sunday, leading Tehran to accuse him of violating the fragile ceasefire between the countries. In a social media post, Trump said that an \u201cIranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}