U.S. forces disabled tanker M/T Lavine off Oman enforcing unauthorized Iran blockade; union disputes CENTCOM's account of what was struck

On July 24, 2026, U.S. forces fired into the engine room of the Mozambique-flagged tanker M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman, disabling the vessel while enforcing the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports that was reimposed on July 14, 2026. U.S. Central Command said the crew had repeatedly ignored warnings while attempting to reach an Iranian port, and released a statement and video of the strike on July 25. It was the second vessel U.S. forces have disabled since the blockade's reimposition, after the M/T Belma on July 15. All 28 Indian seafarers aboard the Lavine survived.

The Forward Seamen's Union of India disputed CENTCOM's account, alleging the strike targeted the crew's accommodation area rather than the engine room. Video the union released shows flames at the base of the smokestack — a location broadly consistent with CENTCOM's engine-room account, according to reporting on the footage — and the precise point of impact has not been independently verified by outlets covering the strike. This entry records both accounts as attributed claims and does not resolve which is correct.

Maritime tracking firm TankerTrackers identified the vessel as the M/T Disha (IMO 8818219), an LPG tanker that has been under U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions for two years and had previously carried Iranian LPG to Houthi forces in Yemen, operating under the Lavine name when it entered the blockade perimeter on July 23. That dual identity and sanctions history are context for what vessel was struck; they are not the basis of the abuse recorded here, which is the use of military force against a civilian merchant vessel under a blockade Congress has not authorized. That authorization question does not turn on whether the target itself was separately sanctioned.

The strike proceeds under a naval blockade President Trump ordered without congressional authorization for the underlying campaign, continuing after Congress passed a bicameral War Powers Resolution against the war in June 2026. It is a discrete act — a different vessel, date, and set of facts from the June 10, 2026 M/T Settebello strike (entries/2026/06/10/federal-extrajudicial-actions-267d0441.yaml) and the M/V Vela Nova strike filed separately — and is recorded alongside them in the same iran-war-powers-defiance episode rather than merged into either.