The US Navy is quietly helping merchant ships transit the Strait of Hormuz as negotiations between the US and Iran remain uncertain, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to US military sources, a Greek supertanker carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil was intercepted by the US Navy while passing off the coast of Oman after being stuck in the Persian Gulf since early March. His cargo has been sent to India.
A spokesman for US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that Washington is not restarting Project Freedom and that US forces are not officially escorting merchant ships, but the report notes that the Navy plans to assist about a dozen ships in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by striking targets near the disputed strait. The US said the strikes were defensive in nature, targeting missile sites and ships trying to lay mines. According to the *New York Times*, US warplanes sank two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) motorboats that were trying to lay mines in the strategic waterway, which before the war carried about a fifth of the global oil and gas supply.
US officials said Iran had launched attack drones near the US fleet in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, while analysts detected activity at several Iranian surface-to-air missile sites. CENTCOM reported that since mid-April it has diverted 108 merchant ships as part of the blockade of Iranian ports.
The IRGC said it reserves the right to respond to any ceasefire violations and claimed to have shot down a US MQ-9 drone, while reporting the entry of an RQ-4 and an F-35 into Iranian airspace. The Pentagon rejected these claims, calling them untrue.
