Iranian gunboat fires at container off Oman, ship off Iran also targeted

An Iranian gunboat fired at a container ship off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, while a ship off Iran was also fired upon, a British maritime security agency said.

"The master of a container ship reported that the vessel was approached by one IRGC gunboat... that then fired upon the vessel, which has caused heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact reported," the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said.

It added that the incident took place 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman and all the crew were safe.

According to British maritime security firm Vanguard Tech, the vessel was sailing under a Liberian flag and "had been informed it had permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz".

But Iranian news agency Tasnim said the ship had "ignored warnings from Iran's armed forces".

In a separate incident, a cargo ship eight nautical miles west off Iran was fired upon and stopped in the water.

It was unclear who had targeted this ship.

"A master of an outbound cargo ship reports having been fired upon and is now stopped in the water. Crew are safe and accounted for. There is no reported damage to the vessel," UKMTO said.

Vanguard identified it as the Panama-flagged container ship Euphoria, which it said was "transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz".

"It remains unclear whether she has resumed transiting," the firm said.

Shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has been heavily restricted by Iran since the start of the war with Israel and the United States, while the US military is enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports.

US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the truce between the two countries would be extended after it first took effect on April 8.

Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Trump's ceasefire extension.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for agreeing to the extension, saying it would buy time for ongoing diplomatic efforts.

"With the trust and confidence reposed in us, Pakistan shall continue its earnest efforts for a negotiated settlement of the conflict,” he wrote on X.

Trump said the US would continue its blockade of Iranian ports, which Iran has called "unacceptable,” and has indicated was a reason it had not yet agreed to join talks in Islamabad.

The Revolutionary Guard vowed Wednesday to "deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region.”

Wednesday's attack in the Strait of Hormuz came after the US seized an Iranian container ship after shooting it this past weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre, a monitoring agency run by the British military that first reported the 7:55am attack, said a Revolutionary Guard gunboat did not hail the ship before firing. It added that nobody was hurt in the attack.

Iran's Nour News, however, reported that the Guard only opened fire on the ship after it had "ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces.” Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency described the attack as Iran "lawfully enforcing its control over the Strait of Hormuz.

In peacetime, about 20% of the world's oil and natural gas transits the strategic waterway, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open oceans and was fully open until the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.

Since then Tehran has throttled shipping traffic through the strait, causing oil prices to skyrocket and impacting global economies.

In early trading on Wednesday, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was trading at close to $98 a barrel, up more than 30% since the day the war started.

Pakistan has been working tirelessly to bring both sides together for a second round of talks.

So far, Iran has not committed but Pakistani officials there have expressed confidence that Tehran will send a delegation to resume negotiations. The first round April 11 and 12 ended without an agreement.

Over the weekend, Iran said that it had received new proposals from Washington, but also suggested that a wide gap remains between the sides. Issues that derailed the previous round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, its regional proxies and the strait.

Following Trump's announcement of the ceasefire extension, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he hoped it would create "critical space for diplomacy and confidence-building between Iran and the United States,” according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. More than 2,290 people has been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.

Agencies