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First Indian casualty in US-Iran conflict, Oman says mariner killed as oil tanker hit by bomb via drone boat
Iran has been threatening vessels approaching Strait of Hormuz, and is believed to have launched multiple attacks to counter US-Israel aggression
A bomb-carrying drone boat struck a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Monday, killing one mariner on board, Oman said on Monday.
It was not immediately reported who launched this attack amid the US-Israel strikes on Iran and the latter's retaliation on US bases across the Middle East/West Asia region.
The state-run Oman News Agency reported the attack in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Muscat, the sultanate's capital. It identified the vessel as the MKD VYOM. It said the dead crew member was from India, news agency AP reported.
Here: Track live updates on the conflict
Reports were in on Sunday already from news agency Reuters about a projectile hitting tanker MKD VYOM. That killed a crew member on board as the vessel sailed off the coast of Oman, its manager V.Ships said on Sunday. The victim was not identified, and now their nationality has been reported.
"The vessel suffered an explosion and subsequent fire after being struck by a suspected projectile while off the coast of Muscat, Oman on 1 March," V.Ships Asia said in a statement on Sunday. "It is with great sadness that we confirm one crew member, who was in the engine room at the time of the incident, has died," it added.
What Iran said on Oman attacks
Iran has been threatening vessels approaching the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, and is believed to have launched multiple attacks as the war in the Mideast continues after Israel and the United States started a major airstrike campaign targeting the Islamic Republic.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday responded to questions on Iranian strikes across Gulf countries, even as explosions were reported in Dubai, Doha, Manama, and the Omani port of Duqm for a second consecutive day.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Aragchi specifically elaborated on the strike in the Duqm port in Oman, which is playing mediator between Iran and US-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.
Indians aboard another tanker hit
Also on Sunday, 15 Indian nationals were onboard a Palau-flagged oil tanker when it was hit off Oman's Musandam peninsula, injuring four people, reports said. The incident took place as Iran exchanged strikes with the United States and Israel, who launched an attack Saturday that killed the Islamic Republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Oman’s maritime security centre did not specify what hit the vessel. The attack followed earlier drone strikes elsewhere in the Gulf country, at the commercial port of Duqm on the Arabian Sea.
These incidents marked the first time targets in or near Oman have been hit following a wave of retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Gulf states after joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran that have plunged the region into a new war.
The 20-person crew of the Skylight tanker was evacuated after the attack, which occurred about 5 nautical miles north of Musandam's Khasab Port, on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Oman Maritime Security Centre said in a post on X.
The crew consisted of 15 Indian and 5 Iranian citizens, according to the OMSC. Initial information indicated injuries of varying severity among four crew members. Skylight's registered owner is Sea Force Inc, and it is managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, according to official data.
The US Treasury Department had sanctioned 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 petroleum products in the Gulf.
Iran says an oil tanker struck in the Strait of Hormuz
Iranian state television said Sunday that an oil tanker was sinking after it was struck while attempting to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. "The fate of the offending oil tanker that was struck while attempting to illegally pass through the Strait of Hormuz is that it is now sinking," state TV reported, without elaborating.
It carried footage showing heavy black smoke emanating from the burning tanker at sea. The strait carries a quarter of the world's seaborne oil and a fifth of all liquified natural gas.
On Saturday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards had warned that the vital waterway was unsafe due to US and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships.
