The Associated Press reports that the U.S. issued dozens of warnings before American forces opened fire on an oil tanker that was attempting to run the U.S. blockade of Iran. According to a U.S. official cited by AP, the vessel—later disabled by U.S. military action—dismissed nearly 60 verbal warnings along with other signals and demonstrations of force before it was fired upon. The outlets summarizing the AP account describe the warnings as part of the sequence leading to the engagement, though they do not provide further technical detail about the specific communications, their timing, or the precise nature of the “shows of force.”
Across the sources provided, the central points are that the tanker receives repeated warnings, that the warnings were verbal and accompanied by additional measures, and that the U.S. ultimately used gunfire after the vessel continued its attempt to proceed. The reports attribute the information to a U.S. official speaking to AP, and they do not include an independently verified account from the tanker’s crew or owners in the text provided.
