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Oil tanker with 15 Indians struck off Oman coast; crew evacuated, 4 injured
The attack followed earlier drone strikes elsewhere in the Gulf country, at the commercial port of Duqm on the Arabian Sea.
Fifteen Indian nationals were onboard a Palau-flagged oil tanker when it was hit on Sunday 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.
The incidents mark 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.
15 Indians in the 20-member crew
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 LSEG 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.
