American forces fired at a Panama-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that was reportedly attempting to bypass the US embargo on Iranian ports, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a US official with knowledge of the matter.
US Central Command troops fired a missile from a helicopter at the rudder of the Vela Nova, a Panamanian-flagged container ship, earlier on Tuesday morning.
The US official told the WSJ that the ship's crew was transferred to another vessel after the attack. No casualties or injuries have been reported at this time, and all of the ship's crew members were accounted for.
Maritime security firm Vanguard claimed that the US missile "struck the vessel, causing a fire that was subsequently extinguished."
This comes as the US and Iran remain at a standstill over peace talks to end the American blockade of Iranian ports and create a broader-reaching ceasefire.
As of Tuesday, the US and Iran were reportedly nearing a deal, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Bloomberg News.
“Things are shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement or a deal,” Asif said. “The signals in the last two or three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement.”
Notably, US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering declaring victory against Iran without achieving a nuclear deal.
If the US can keep Iran's nuclear program in check and traffic resumes in the Strait of Hormuz, then Trump would be more likely to extend the ceasefire "indefinitely," the officials told WSJ.
Houthis fire at ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait
Also on Tuesday, the Iran-backed Houthis reportedly killed three crew members of a Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Houthis have not claimed the attack, though two Yemeni coast guard sources and two military officials in the government confirmed the attack to Reuters.
If confirmed, the fatalities on the Tanzania-flagged Tihamah would be the first deaths in a Houthi strike on a ship since the Middle East conflict was triggered by US-Israeli attacks on Iran at the end of February, Reuters reported.
Two Pakistanis and one Indonesian person were killed as the ship sailed from Salalah in Oman via Djibouti, the Yemeni sources said.
After the attack, the crew lost control of the vessel and were approached by Yemeni coastguard, they added.