US fighter jet disables bulker Ocean Molica as she tries to run the Iran blockade
The 1996-built Panama-flagged ship is the fourth merchant vessel US forces have disabled since the blockade resumed on 14 July
A US fighter jet struck the stern of the Panama-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Molica in the Gulf of Oman on Saturday 10 October, disabling her propulsion. US Central Command said the crew "ignored repeated warnings and attempted to run the ongoing naval blockade against Iran" after the ship had left an Iranian port, and that nobody on board was harmed. It did not name the aircraft, saying only that a precision munition was used.
Ocean Molica is a bulk carrier of about 70,000 dwt built in 1996, with a Hong Kong-based owner and operator. She has a history of inspection deficiencies in Chinese ports, and since mid-2023 she has traded almost exclusively between China and the Middle East.
How did she try to leave the Gulf of Oman?
Tracking data analysed by Pole Star Global show that she arrived in the Gulf of Oman in mid-August and spent weeks at anchor off Fujairah, with a long gap in AIS reception from August into early September. She appears to have tried to leave at least three times before this attempt. Her final departure was not picked up by commercial AIS, and she had reached the Arabian Sea coast of Oman, east of Sharkh, when she was intercepted. Her AIS signal returned early on 11 October, showing her drifting slowly to the northeast.
She is the fourth merchant ship US forces have disabled since the blockade of Iranian ports resumed in its current form on 14 July. CENTCOM counts four commercial ships disabled and 135 turned around over three months of enforcement, as well as 10 tankers it links to the shadow network of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps destroyed. The blockade was first imposed in April, lifted on 18 June after an agreement between Washington and Tehran, and reinstated a month later.
CENTCOM advised mariners near the Gulf of Oman and the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz to heed blockade warnings, monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact US naval forces on VHF channel 16.
The strike came on the same day that the IRGC claimed an attack on the LPG carrier NV Sunshine, which it accused of using an illegal route through the strait. The following day UKMTO logged six attacks on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the highest daily count of the conflict.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 13 October 2026.
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