U.S. Navy destroyer fired on and seized the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska enforcing an Iran blockade

On April 19, 2026, the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance fired several rounds from its 5-inch MK 45 gun into the engine room of the Iranian-flagged container ship Touska, disabling the vessel in waters near the Gulf of Oman. According to U.S. Central Command, the Touska was attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz toward the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas when American forces issued multiple warnings that it was in violation of a U.S. naval blockade. After the crew failed to comply over a six-hour period, the Spruance directed the ship to evacuate its engine room before opening fire. U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit then boarded and took custody of the Touska, and President Trump announced the operation on Truth Social.

The seizure was carried out as enforcement of a naval blockade the Pentagon has imposed since April 13 on shipping bound to or from Iranian ports — a measure that, among other effects, blocks Iran from exporting its oil through the strait. The Touska is the first non-military Iranian vessel U.S. forces are known to have struck during the current conflict and the first cargo ship captured since the blockade began. Iran's joint military command condemned the action as "piracy" and vowed to retaliate; Tehran also said it would not send negotiators to U.S.-Iran talks that Pakistan was attempting to host in Islamabad.

The Standing records this event for the structural form of the action rather than the merits of the underlying foreign policy. Article I of the Constitution lodges the power to make war with Congress, and the War Powers Resolution requires the President to terminate sustained hostilities within 60 days absent statutory authorization. The disabling fire from a Navy warship's main gun and the armed boarding that followed are discrete, on-the-record uses of military force undertaken to enforce a blockade the executive branch is conducting against Iran without a specific congressional authorization for the use of military force or a declaration of war. The same war-powers storyline appears elsewhere in the archive's intake queue, including open monitoring of the Pentagon's deliberations over renaming the Iran operation as a vehicle for resetting the War Powers Resolution clock; under event-level deduplication that policy-level decision is a distinct event from this kinetic engagement and stands separately.