US Central Command confirmed that its forces disabled the St. Kitts and Nevis-flagged bulk carrier M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman on November 7, the first confirmed instance of American forces striking a commercial vessel under the naval blockade of Iran. CENTCOM said the ship had visited an Iranian port and was trying to leave regional waters after its crew ignored repeated warnings and attempted to violate the blockade multiple times; a US military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern after directing the crew to abandon targeted spaces. UKMTO recorded the incident about 18 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan under warning UKMTO 198-26; crew condition, damage extent and any environmental consequences were unknown at the time of reporting [1]. CENTCOM said blockade enforcement since July has redirected 147 commercial vessels that complied with instructions and disabled five merchant vessels that refused [1][2].

The confirmation came alongside JMIC Advisory Update 112 of November 8, which logged five new incidents, raising the total to 177 since March 1, and kept the regional maritime threat level at SEVERE. The update detailed a November 5 waterline explosion on an outbound tanker 16 nautical miles east of Khasab - the fifth attack off Oman's Musandam coast since November 1 - and two November 7 tanker incidents: a tanker on fire about eight nautical miles northwest of Khasab whose crew was evacuated, and an outbound tanker struck by an unidentified projectile in the strait with all crew safe. JMIC counted two tanker attacks in the latest reporting period against four in the previous one and noted continuing IRGC surveillance of merchant vessels, drone overflights and VHF communications directed at shipping. Independent tracking still indicates single-digit to low-double-digit daily transits against a 2025 average of about 138 vessel transits a day, with roughly 30 US-facilitated transits daily from November 5 to 7, while about 162 vessels sat at anchor near Fujairah and Khor Fakkan and 46 near Musandam and Sohar on November 8 [1]. JMIC also logged a suspicious explosion in Bab el-Mandeb on November 6 near an unidentified northbound radar target and kept that threat level at SUBSTANTIAL [1].

Diplomacy remains active but unresolved. Qatar's prime minister told Al Jazeera on Saturday that negotiations had made substantial progress, the Qatari foreign ministry rejected weekend reports that the mediation had collapsed, and Qatar's emir spoke with President Trump on Friday [2]. Neither the strike nor the talks changed what can be measured on the water: JMIC's figures are vessel movements, not oil volumes, no source identifies cargoes, and IMF PortWatch's latest print still records a single completed transit on November 1. Whether any commercial oil cargo currently passes through Hormuz remains unconfirmed [1].