🚀 The Russian Armed Forces on have employed an Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile system to launch a precision strike on a container ship carrying cargo to the Ukrainian port of Odessa.

📦 The ship was reported to be carrying 100 containers of military cargo including drone systems. Commenting on the attack, the Russian Defense Ministry reported:

🗓 “On May 23, crews of Iskander missile systems carried out a group missile strike on a container ship that was transporting military assets to the port of Odessa, as well as a warehouse storing containers in that port. The ship was carrying about 100 containers with military cargo, including sea drones, UAVs and ammunition.”

📈 The Iskander-M system has been relied on heavily since the outbreak of full scale hostilities in Ukraine in February 2022 to strike a wide range of targets, ranging from personnel concentrations to air defence sites and enemy airfields. Use of the system increased significantly from early 2023 as enlargement of the production scale for its 9K720 ballistic missiles expanded the supplies available for the Russian Army.

⚓️ The use of Iskander-M systems to target ships bringing supplies into Ukraine is far from unprecedented, with a notable prior example being the strike on the Panama flagged container ship Shui Spirit in October 2024, which was carrying armaments from the Romanian port of Constanta to Odessa.

#IskanderM #Container #Ship #Ukraine #MissileStrike

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The US Has Attacked An Iranian-Flagged Container Ship. A New Stage of the War? ⚠️🌍

The US military has attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged container ship that attempted to get past an American blockade near the strait of Hormuz, the first such interception since the blockade of Iranian ports began last week. 🚢

Iran’s joint military command said Tehran would respond soon and called the US seizure an act of piracy that violated the ceasefire that has been in place since 8 April.

The news threw into question Trump’s earlier announcement that US negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran.

That had raised hopes of extending a fragile ceasefire set to expire by Wednesday, but Iran has not confirmed it will attend.

In a post on X, US Central Command said US marines departed the USS Tripoli assault ship by helicopter and rappelled on to Touska on Sunday. The post included a video of the marines onboard the helicopter.

Trump had earlier posted on X that the ship had tried to get past the US blockade “and it did not go well for them”.

The US president said a US navy guided missile destroyer warned the Touska to stop in the Gulf of Oman but the vessel did not.

“[Our] Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room,” Trump said, adding that US marines now had custody of the vessel. 💥

He said the ship was under US treasury sanctions because of “prior history of illegal activity”. The ship is on the treasury department’s list of sanctioned vessels.

A spokesperson for Iran military’s central command centre, Khatam al-Anbiya, cited by the Isna news agency, said:

“We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military.”

Iranian state media also reported that Tehran had – for now – rejected new peace talks, citing the ongoing blockade, threatening rhetoric, and Washington’s shifting positions and “excessive demands”.

Video posted on social media by the US defence department showed the interception of the ship by US forces.

“Vacate your engine room,” a US sailor can be heard saying. “We’re prepared to subject you to disabling fire.”

The cargo ship was stopped near Iran’s border with Pakistan. 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.

The escalating standoff threatens to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed fighting, in a conflict that has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 civilians and 15 soldiers in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed. 📉

#us #iranian #container #ship #war

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