The U.S. Navy says its intervention prevented Iran from seizing two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday. In both cases, the Iranian naval vessels only backed off after the U.S. Navy dispatched a guided-missile destroyer to the scene, and then both commercial ships continued their voyages.

“The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters,” the spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Commander Tim Hawkins, said. “The U.S. Navy responded immediately and prevented those seizures.”

He said gunfire directed at the second vessel did not cause casualties or major damage.

The Fifth Fleet, which is responsible for America’s naval forces in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and elsewhere, shares a headquarters with the United States Naval Forces Central Command in the Persian Gulf island country of Bahrain. 

There was no immediate Iranian comment on the incidents.

The U.S. Navy said an Iranian naval vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged TRF Moss in the Gulf of Oman at around 1 a.m. The U.S. deployed the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, as well as an MQ-9 Reaper drone and a P-8 Poseidon patrol plane.

Three hours later, the U.S. Navy received a distress call from the oil tanker Richmond Voyager more than 20 nautical miles off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman. That vessel is a Greek-owned, Bahamian-flagged crude oil tanker managed by the Chevron Corporation.

The Navy said another Iranian naval vessel had closed within a mile of the tanker and had ordered it to stop. At that point the tanker, which was en route to Singapore from the United Arab Emirates, accelerated and changed course. 

The same U.S. destroyer sped toward the tanker at “maximum speed,” the Navy said in a statement. “Prior to McFaul’s arrival on scene, Iranian personnel fired multiple, long bursts from both small arms and crew-served weapons,” it said.

The U.S. Navy says Iran has seized at least five commercial vessels in the last two years and has harassed more than a dozen others. Many of the incidents have occurred in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes.

In April, masked Iranian navy commandos conducted a helicopter-borne raid to seize an American-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, footage of which was aired on Iranian state TV. Iran said the tanker was seized after it collided with another Iranian vessel but provided no evidence. In the past, Iran has seized commercial vessels to use as bargaining chips with the West.

In May 2022, Iran seized two Greek tankers plying international waters in the Persian Gulf, prompting the Greek government to denounce  the Iranian actions as an act of piracy. Athens also warned Greek ships to avoid Iran’s territorial waters when traversing the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman.

Tensions have risen steadily since the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers and restored crippling sanctions. Iran has responded by ramping up its nuclear activities — which it says are purely peaceful — and is also providing armed drones to Russia for its war against Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine also has repercussions in the region. Iran’s seizure of the Greek tankers last year was seen as a retaliatory move by Tehran following Greece’s seizure of a Russian-flagged tanker that was transporting sanctioned Iranian crude oil.