For the umpteenth time, U.S. special forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean last Friday. Images released by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) show three SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters above the supertanker Davina, which has been sanctioned by the United States since 2024 over suspicions of dealing in Iranian oil and by Ukraine in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against the country.
The Davina sails officially under the Tanzanian flag, but according to internet trade portals it has also appeared under the name Lenore with the Curaçao flag. The ship was built in 1993 for a Japanese operator, and from 2010 it sailed as Ace Shanghai under the flags of Tuvalu and Malaysia, then from 2021 as Hong Kong under the flags of Panama, Mongolia and Sierra Leone.
US-Spezialkräfte brachten bereits zwei andere Tanker auf
The Davina was last reported off the south coast of Sri Lanka, and according to its draft it was nearly fully loaded. It has a capacity of just under two million barrels of crude oil. Since the start of the year, the United States, in connection with its maritime blockades, has first targeted Venezuela and later Iran with a number of so-called shadow fleets on the world’s seas. Thus the Davina is already the third supertanker with connections to Iran that has been boarded in the Indian Ocean since April 13.
Additionally, U.S. Marines stormed a container ship in the Gulf of Oman on April 19 after it attempted to breach the blockade of Iranian ports and was stopped by American artillery fire. In February, the United States also boarded three tankers in the Indian Ocean that had fled from the coast of Venezuela. Other actions took place in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic. European countries have also repeatedly acted against suspected ships of the Russian shadow fleet.
