US president says his country’s forces stopped cargo ship Touska by ‘blowing a hole’ in its engine room. Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026US President Donald Trump has said United States forces have seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get past his country’s naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz.In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the ship, named Touska, was warned by a US Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman to stop, but its “crew refused to listen”.He added that the US Navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room” and that US Marines had custody of the vessel, and were “seeing what’s on board”.Early on Monday, Iran’s top joint military command said the US had violated a ceasefire reached earlier this month by firing at an Iranian commercial ship that was heading from China to Iran.It added that after the US attack on the vessel, Iranian forces also targeted US military ships with drones and vowed that Iran would soon retaliate against this “maritime and armed robbery” by the US military.The development comes amid a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for the shipment of about a fifth of the world’s oil, amid threats from Iran and a US blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports.Earlier on Sunday, Iranian officials said ships would not pass while the US blockade – in place since April 13 – remained in effect. “It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.Iran had announced the strait’s reopening after a 10-day truce between Israel and the Lebanese …
