Fury over chilling footage of Iran Revolutionary Guard seizing Hormuz ships

Panama condemned what it described as the “illegal seizure” of the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, declaring it a grave assault on maritime security. In footage aired by Iranian state broadcasters, armed soldiers were seen approaching one of the vessels via a small boat before scaling a ladder to board it.

The Guard also launched an assault on a third vessel, identified as the Euphoria, which had reportedly become “stranded” along the Iranian coastline, according to Iranian media, though no further details were provided. The strikes came just a day after Trump extended a two-week ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.

The ongoing standoff between the US and Iran has effectively strangled nearly all exports passing through the strait — through which 20% of the world’s traded oil flows during peacetime — with no resolution in sight.

Video footage broadcast on Iranian state television purportedly captures the chilling moment masked Islamic Revolutionary Guard troops boarded and commandeered two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, just hours after Donald Trump extended a fragile ceasefire.

Iran fired upon three ships and seized two of them in the vital waterway on Wednesday. The captured vessels were the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, both container ships.

Technomar, the management firm behind the Liberian-registered Epaminondas, confirmed it was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” off the Omani coastline, adding that the ship’s bridge had sustained damage. A second cargo vessel came under fire several hours later, with no damage reported, before it was brought to a standstill in the water.

Iranian media reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was transporting both vessels to Iran, signalling a further escalation, although the White House insisted the seizures did not breach ceasefire terms.

Iran’s seizure of the ships didn’t violate truce terms because “these were not US or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel.

The assaults follow a sudden shift in Iran’s position over the weekend, after the Iranian foreign minister announced on Friday that the strait was open, only to be contradicted the following day by the Revolutionary Guard.

More than 30 attacks on vessels across the Middle East have been recorded since the US and Israel launched the conflict on February 28 with a surprise offensive against Iran. Prior to that point, the strait had remained open to all maritime traffic.