US, Iran exchange fresh strikes as peace talks remain stalled

Gulf hostilities flared anew on Wednesday, after the US military fired a missile at a ship on Qeshm Island that was attempting to sail toward an Iranian port “in violation of an American blockade”, disabling the vessel, the US military said. The Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie — an unladen oil tanker — “ignored repeated warnings” over 24 hours, and an American warplane “ultimately disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room,” the US military’s Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement.