The United States on Sunday made good on its threat to board and seize ships resisting Iran’s port blockade, with footage released by the military showing Marines rappelling from helicopters onto the deck of the Iranian-aligned missile destroyer M/V Touska after it was disabled.
The incident came after the Trump administration indicated in Islamabad, Pakistan, this week that it expects peace talks with Iran to resume.
Iran has vowed to retaliate for the seizure of the merchant ship, but has not yet officially joined the negotiations.
Experts told CNN that what happens next to the ship and its crew could depend on what it was carrying.
Here’s what we know:
According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the missile destroyer USS Spruance issued repeated warnings over a six-hour period while the container ship sailed through the Arabian Sea toward Bandar Abbas, Iran.
According to MarineTraffic.com, Touska’s last port of call was Port Klang, Malaysia, on April 12. Prior to that, the ship shuttled between Zhuhai, China, and various ports in Iran.
The ship is owned by Mosahar Darya Shipping Company, which has an address in Tehran, and is subject to sanctions, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
According to Marine Traffic, the Towska has been sanctioned since 2018, and its owning company and all of its technical and commercial managers have been sanctioned since 2012.
USS Spruance is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer and the capital ship of the Navy’s fleet.
The 5-inch gun is designed for use against ships, aircraft and land targets, according to a Navy fact sheet.
First fielded in 1971, the Mark 45 gun has a range of 15 miles with conventional ammunition.
The Navy says it is a fully automatic weapon capable of firing 16 to 20 rounds per minute from a 20-round drum, which can then be reloaded by the crew below deck for further use.
The ship is also equipped with a variety of other weapons, including torpedoes, Tomahawk missiles for ground attack, standard interceptors for ballistic missile defense, and Sea Sparrow missiles for short-range and aircraft defense.
Spruance displaces approximately 9,000 tons, is over 500 feet long, and carries a crew of 329 people. She joined the fleet in 2011 and operates as part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, homeporting in San Diego.
Centcom said the US destroyer fired “several shots” from its 5-inch gun on the Towska.
Video provided by the Navy shows the warship firing three shots at Tuska after warning the crew to evacuate the engine room.
“U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit subsequently boarded the nonconforming vessel, which remains under U.S. control,” the CENTCOM statement said.
CENTCOM video shows US Marines boarding Iranian-flagged vessel
Video taken after sunset shows U.S. Marines aboard the amphibious assault ship Tripoli rappelling from a helicopter and boarding the ship.
Karl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain and analyst, told CNN that it would likely take at least two hits from the destroyer’s main guns to destroy Towska’s diesel engine. All three shots fired by Spruance in the video provided by CENTCOM appeared to hit, he said.
Schuster said the ship would likely need to be towed after the collision.
Schuster said the Towska will be taken to a berth or port for inspection or evaluation.
Once that is done and the cargo is identified, it could end up as a “prize” in the possession of the U.S. government. experts say.
“Under the laws of naval warfare, it is possible to seize a vessel that attempts to blockade in a situation like this,” Jennifer Parker, a non-resident researcher at the Lowy Institute and a former Australian naval officer, told CNN.
“If they choose to keep it long-term, it will have to go through the awards court and it will have to be established,” she said.
Schuster said it could be treated as “spoils of war,” similar to enemy combatants and materials seized from an enemy during the course of an armed conflict.
As for the fate of Towska’s crew, Parker said their nationality will determine their fate.
“If it was an Indian or Filipino crew member, I think the crew would be taken off the ship and repatriated.”
Parker said the crew could be detained if they were Iranian, and if there were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on board, they could be held as prisoners of war.
If the Towska was carrying any arms or weapons for Iran, the crew would likely be detained, she said.
CNN has asked Central Command for comment on the nationalities of the crew and the condition of the cargo ship.
