A Wall Street Journal report says US forces intercepted and destroyed military-linked cargo bound for Iran, highlighting Washington’s intensified maritime pressure campaign.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a US special forces team carried out an unusual maritime raid last month in the central Indian Ocean on a ship sailing from China to Iran. The forces reportedly seized “items with military links” from the vessel and destroyed the cargo, after which the ship was allowed to continue on its route.
At this stage, the report is based solely on anonymous American sources and has not been officially confirmed by the Pentagon or US Central Command.
US officials quoted in the article said the seized components could have been used by Iran in the development or production of conventional weapons. The operation allegedly took place several hundred miles off the coast of Sri Lanka and was described as part of a focused effort to block Iranian attempts to rebuild military stockpiles and capabilities that were significantly damaged during the June confrontation with Israel. The Journal emphasized that this was an unusual step of direct maritime enforcement against a shipment moving from Asia to Iran.