US forces seize ship in Indian Ocean that fled Caribbean blockade

The Pentagon told AFP that US forces had seized the ship, after announcing on X that the Aquila II was boarded “without incident” overnight.

The tanker “was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed,” the Pentagon said on X, adding that the vessel was “tracked and hunted” from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.

The post included a video of US forces boarding a helicopter and then roping down onto the deck of a tanker ship.

The ship is the eighth seized by the United States since Trump in December ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and from Venezuela.

And it is the second to lead US forces on a chase outside the region, after a Russia-linked tanker was apprehended in the North Atlantic last month after being pursued by the United States from off the coast of Venezuela.