US helicopter fired on ship that tried to break Iran ports blockade

BREAKING: US military says it fired missiles at a Panama-flagged cargo ship trying to reach Iran, the third vessel stopped during Washington's ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.

A US helicopter just fired missiles at a cargo ship heading for Iran.

The Pentagon says the Panama-flagged vessel tried to run Washington's blockade of Iranian ports and got hit for it. That makes three ships stopped since the blockade went up. These interdictions are being flown off carrier decks in the region, and you can see the kind of operations involved right here.

Step back for a second. A blockade is not a sanction on paper, it's warships physically turning traffic away from Iranian ports, and every single stop at sea is a moment where somebody can miscalculate. Tehran has said nothing that sounds like backing down, and Washington is clearly willing to shoot.

So the real question isn't this ship, it's staying power. Is the US blockade of Iranian ports still in effect on September the thirtieth? Seven weeks is a long time to hold a line this hot, but Washington rarely folds fast.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at channelnewsasia.com