Why Is the US Now Missiling Tankers Off Iran?
A US aircraft fired Hellfire missiles into the empty VLCC Belma off Iran’s Kharg Island, before it could load nearly 2 million barrels.
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On July 15, a US aircraft fired Hellfire missiles into the funnel of an empty supertanker off Iran and left it dead in the water.
The Curacao-flagged VLCC Belma was not carrying oil. It was steaming toward Kharg Island to load close to 2 million barrels of Iranian crude, and it ignored every warning to turn around. So the United States stopped it the way you stop a 333-metre ship without sinking it: a precision strike into the smokestack, propulsion wrecked, cargo tanks spared, no reported spill. It was the first enforcement strike of the naval blockade Washington reimposed on July 14, and it revealed the real doctrine in a single frame. Washington is no longer trying to catch Iran’s oil at sea. It is making sure the oil never loads.
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→ April 13, 2026: The US imposes its first naval blockade of Iranian ports (US Central Command)
→ June 18, 2026: US blockade enforcement ends, a day after the June 17 memorandum ending the war (CENTCOM; CNN)
→ July 7, 2026: US forces strike more than 80 targets and destroy over 60 IRGC fast-attack craft after attacks on merchant ships (CENTCOM)
→ July 14, 2026: The US reimposes the naval blockade of Iranian ports at 4 p.m. Eastern (CENTCOM; CNN)
→ July 15, 2026: A US aircraft disables the VLCC Belma with Hellfire missiles off Kharg Island, the first enforcement strike (CENTCOM; NPR)
→ July 15, 2026: The IRGC warns that "not a single drop of oil and gas" will be exported while US actions in the region continue (IRGC, via Times of Israel)
Sources: US Central Command; CNN; NPR; Bloomberg; Times of Israel; Baltic Exchange; Lloyd’s List
