Free Republic

The U.S. Navy deterred Iranian forces from seizing two commercial tankers on Wednesday in separate incidents. First, at about 1 a.m. local time, an Iranian navy vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. It departed when the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived at the scene, the U.S. 5th Fleet announced on Wednesday. Approximately three hours later, another Iranian vessel began harassing the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager in international waters roughly 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman. It opened fire with both small arms and crew-served...

South Korea is sending military forces to respond to the seizure of one of its tankers by Iran, an endeavor in which it is seeking to work with other nations operating in the region Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard announced Monday that its Zulfiqar fleet had seized a South Korean vessel operating in the Islamic Republic's First Naval District in the Persian Gulf "due to a series of violations of marine environmental laws" after it departed from Saudi Arabia's Al-Jubail port. The ship, Hankuk Chemi, was said to be transporting up to 7,200 tons of oil-based chemicals, and carrying a crew...

Oil tanker Niovi, sailing under Panamanian flag, captured by Iran in Strait of Hormuz Iranian forces captured a foreign vessel on Wednesday, the second ship to be harassed and seized by the Middle Eastern country in a week, the U.S. Navy said. The Niovi, a commercial oil tanker flying the Panama flag, was passing through the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman when it was overtaken by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN)

The U.S. intelligence community has tracked the huge growth of IRGC's military over the last decade. Officials said IRGC has formed fully-fledged armies, navies and air force, organized to conduct both conventional and insurgency operations. "Iran's objective is to overwhelm enemy air defenses with mobile CDCMs [coastal defense cruise missiles], combined with multiple rocket launchers, coastal artillery, and ballistic missiles," an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency said. The DIA assessment, titled "Iran's Military Power," outlined the roles of Iran's conventional military and IRGC. The assessment, released to the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 15, asserted that the conventional...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is expected to begin air, land and sea exercises in the Persian Gulf, perhaps as soon as Thursday, according to Iran's IRIB news agency. A U.S. military official separately confirmed to CNN that the United States has observed in recent days Iran is "relocating surface and air assets" for what appears to be a major exercise. The official did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. The exercise could last five days, according to Iranian media reports. Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guard, is quoted in...