Viral claims of a US Navy destroyer disabling an Iranian ship in the Gulf of Oman lack official confirmation and independent verification.
WASHINGTON— Viral social media claims alleging that a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer intercepted and disabled an Iranian commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman have triggered sharp scrutiny across naval monitoring channels, though defense authorities and maritime tracking bodies have issued no official confirmation of the reported clash.
The unsourced accounts,which spread rapidly across digital platforms, detailed an alleged six-hour standoff between the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Spruance and an Iranian-flagged merchant ship operating near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. According to the viral narrative, the commercial vessel repeatedly defied navigational instructions and formal warnings before American forces delivered kinetic warning shots that reportedly disabled the ship’s propulsion systems.