Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has seized a ship flying the flag of Eswatini and carrying "smuggled fuel", state media reported on Sunday.
Iranian forces regularly target tankers carrying fuel in the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
"A vessel carrying 350,000 litres of smuggled fuel operating under the flag of Eswatini was seized and taken to Bushehr", in the south-western Iran, state television reported, quoting a local IRGC commander. "There are 13 crew members on board, all from a neighbouring country and India," the report added.
The IRGC, the ideological arm of the Iranian military, said this month that it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf. The company managing the vessel later said Iran had released the tanker and that its 21 crew members were safe.
The ship, called Talara, was heading through the Strait of Hormuz when it changed course suddenly and sailed towards Iranian waters. Its seized cargo included "Iranian petrochemical products ... illegally transported towards Singapore", Iran's Fars news agency said. "The main person responsible was an Iranian individual or company," it added.
Last year, the IRGC seized a container ship it said had links to Israel, after the country was blamed for a deadly attack on Iran's consulate in Syria.
Fars reported that the seizure of the Talara was a local matter and was not an act taken against another country.
Iran has been fighting against rampant fuel smuggling to neighbouring countries and the Gulf.
With reporting from agencies
