A drone boat carrying bombs collided with a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, killing one of the sailors on board, Oman said on Monday.
It was not immediately reported who launched this attack amid the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the latter’s retaliation against US bases in the Middle East and West Asia.
The state-run Oman News Agency reported that the attack occurred in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Muscat, the Sultanate’s capital. The vessel was identified as MKD VYOM. The Associated Press news agency reported that the dead crew member was from India.
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Already on Sunday, reports came from Reuters news agency that a projectile had hit the MKD VYOM tanker. The ship’s manager, V.Ships, said on Sunday that this led to the death of a crew member while it was sailing off the coast of Oman. The identity of the victim has not been identified, and now their nationality has been reported.
“The ship suffered an explosion and subsequent fire after being hit by a suspected projectile while off the coast of Muscat, Oman, on March 1,” V.Ships Asia said in a statement on Sunday. She added: “It is with great sadness that we confirm the death of a crew member who was in the engine room at the time of the accident.”
What did Iran say about the Oman attacks?
Iran is threatening ships approaching the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, and is believed to have launched multiple attacks as the war continues in the Middle East after Israel and the United States began a major air campaign targeting the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Monday responded to questions about Iranian strikes in Gulf states, even as explosions were reported in Dubai, Doha, Manama and the Omani port of Duqm for the second day in a row.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Araqchi spoke specifically about the attack on the port of Duqm in Oman, which plays the role of mediator between Iran, the United States, and Israel. He said that the attack was not the regime’s choice, adding that the armed forces were “now acting independently” based on general instructions.
The Indians were struck aboard another carrier
Reports said that 15 Indian nationals were on board a Palau-flagged oil tanker on Sunday when it collided off Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, injuring four people. The incident occurred as Iran exchanged blows with the United States and Israel, which launched an attack on Saturday that killed the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Omani Maritime Security Center did not specify what hit the ship. The attack followed previous drone strikes elsewhere in the Gulf state, in the commercial port of Duqm on the Arabian Sea.
These incidents were the first time that targets were struck in or near Oman following a wave of retaliatory strikes launched by Tehran on the Gulf states after the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran that pushed the region into a new war.
The Omani Maritime Security Center said in a post on the
The crew consists of 15 Indians and 5 Iranians, according to OMSC. Initial information indicates injuries of varying severity among the four crew members. The registered owner of Skylight is Sea Force Inc, and it is managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, according to official data.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Red Sea Ship Management and Skylight, among other vessels, in December last year, accusing the management company and its owner of operating a “shadow fleet” to transport Iranian oil products in the Gulf.
Iran says an oil tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz
Iranian state television announced on Sunday that an oil tanker sank after it was bombed while trying to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. State television stated, without going into details, that “the fate of the illegal oil tanker that was bombed while trying to pass illegally through the Strait of Hormuz is that it is now sinking.”
Footage was broadcast showing thick black smoke emanating from the burning tanker at sea. The strait carries a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of liquefied natural gas.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned on Saturday that the vital waterway was unsafe due to American and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships.
