The Drive–War Zone has a post about an incident that reportedly occurred on October 24. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp seized a Vietnamese flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman and escorted it into an Iranian port.

The Iranian claim is that the tanker was carrying oil from a tanker the US had seized and they only boarded the vessel to protect it, and their oil, from being seized by the US.

Three short videos, published by the Iranians, accompany the post. The third clearly shows a Webber class cutter in the vicinity of the tanker.

In viewing the videos, I would note that, when the tanker is seized, no US assets are visible in the vicinity. The initial boarding is by troops with weapons at the ready, landed by helicopter–not normally the sort of boarding that would be used if their presence was welcomed. When additional Iranian personnel board by boat, again no US assets are visible in the area.

The videos only prove that at some point during the transit from the time of the seizure to the Iranian port, two US destroyers and the cutter closed with the tanker and its Iranian escort.

Hopefully the tanker and crew will be released in the near future. It will be interesting to hear their perspective on what occurred.