(CNN) -- The US Army announced Wednesday the disabling of an empty oil tanker that was sailing towards Kharg Island, which is considered an economic lifeline for Iran.

This is the first ship to be disabled by US forces since the reimposition of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports on Tuesday.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on platform 'X' (formerly Twitter) that its forces spotted the commercial tanker 'M/T Belma' flying the flag of Curaçao as it was crossing international waters heading towards Kharg Island.

The command stated that 'the ship ignored multiple warnings while attempting to breach the US blockade,' noting that a US aircraft disabled the ship after firing 'Hellfire' missiles at its exhaust, and that the ship was no longer on its way to Iran.

CENTCOM added that during the first 24 hours of the naval blockade, it diverted 'two commercial ships that complied with instructions, and disabled one non-compliant ship.'

It is noteworthy that during the previous blockade period — which was lifted after the US and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding in mid-June — CENTCOM claimed to have diverted 142 ships and disabled nine non-compliant ships over two months.