The United States Armed Forces reported this Wednesday the destruction of a 'dhow', a type of sailing vessel of Arab origin, "linked to Iran" and which, according to Washington, was carrying out "surveillance activities" on U.S. Navy ships deployed in the Gulf of Oman, within the United States' naval blockade against Iran.
"On October 6, U.S. forces destroyed a dhow linked to Iran that was conducting surveillance activities and targeting U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman," stated the Central Command of the Army (CENTCOM) in a statement released on social media.
The personnel aboard, however, "were evacuated safe and sound before the destruction of the dhow," emphasized the military command, which added that, eight days after the sinking of the vessel, "efforts are being made for their repatriation."
In the same message, CENTCOM denounced that, "during the last seven months," that is, just two weeks after the United States and Israel began the war by bombing cities, regions, and Iranian assets, "the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran has continued to indiscriminately attack thousands of civilian sailors transiting regional waters, in addition to U.S. Navy warships."
For months, the U.S. Navy, primarily deployed at the exit of the Strait of Hormuz, has been escorting merchant vessels along the southern stretch of this maritime corridor with the aim of restoring the flow of crude oil and liquefied natural gas to pre-war levels. Iran, for its part, considers this southern route "illegal" and demands that ships navigate close to its coastline, while periodically recording incidents in which various vessels suffer explosions and fires caused by the detonation of naval mines as they pass.