Video posted by US Central Command on Sunday (April 19) is said to show a US Navy destroyer firing on an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel.
According to Central Command, a US Navy destroyer intercepted “M/V Touska as it transited the north Arabian Sea at 17 knots enroute to Bandar Abbas, Iran.”
Reuters confirmed the identity of the ship as Touska by its shape which matched file imagery. Exact date could not be verified, but no older version of the video was found posted online before April 19. The vessel tracking data showed the most recent location of Touska near the Gulf of Oman on April 19.
Central Command issued a statement with the video saying Touska’s crew “failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period,” leading the destroyer, USS Spruance, to fire “several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room.”
CENTCOM also said US Marines boarded the vessel, which remains in US custody.
