The Iranian-flagged ship, Touska, seized on Sunday, was likely carrying “dual-use” items with potential military uses, according to reports. The ship arrived in the Gulf of Oman after stops in China and Malaysia, but the exact nature of the cargo was not immediately clear.
The report, citing maritime security sources, said Touska was transporting goods for industrial use. While there is no official confirmation on the item it was reportedly carrying, the US Central Command has listed metals, pipes, and electronic components among other goods.
The US, which seized the ship, has assigned a team of Marines who are searching and scanning a large number of containers aboard the vessel, which reportedly tried to evade the blockade. It is also not clear what the US plans to do with the disabled vessel once the search is done.
A U.S. military official told The New York Times that one option would be to tow the stricken ship to Oman, while another would be to let the Touska steam to an Iranian port if it can. The ship’s crew will be returning to Iran soon, a second U.S. military official said.
Touska was "specially" and "precisely" targeted in the "string (related to the ship's rudder) and radar" areas, and although the ship suffered serious damage and was disabled, the ship's crew is safe. The ship departed from Port Klang, Malaysia, on April 13th for Bandar Abbas in southern Iran and was scheduled to arrive at the port on Monday.
The ship's captain, Bakhtiar Hosseinzadeh, is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Its crew is called "the guardian of the interests of the IRGC in shipping,” according to Iran Wire, which added that the warnings from the American ship were heard by other ships, but that Toska's captain deliberately ignored them.
According to CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper, Touska was one of “several vessels of interest” that U.S. intelligence analysts have been monitoring in recent days, both inside and outside the blockade boundary. The small container ship has been hit with U.S. sanctions.
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the Indian-origin member of US President Donald Trump's Republican Party, has claimed that Touska was travelling from China and was carrying chemical shipments for missiles. "The ship the US seized in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend was headed from China to Iran and is linked to chemical shipments for missiles. It refused repeated orders to stop," Haley said in a post on X.