Three Indian seafarers who were missing after the US military attacked their tanker in the Gulf of Oman had died, shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed on Thursday.
There were 24 Indian sailors onboard the Palau-flagged oil products tanker Settebello when it was struck by an American fighter jet, allegedly for violating the US blockade of Iran. The strike was the latest US escalation targeting Iran-linked shipping routes.
Not long after Mr Sonowal confirmed the deaths of the sailors, the Indian embassy in Muscat said that it was closely monitoring reports of a fresh vessel “incident” off Oman’s Shinas coast and coordinating with local authorities to gather more information.
The vessel was widely reported to be MT Jalveer but this was yet to be officially confirmed. It was not clear what had happened, whether the ship was damaged, or if anyone on board was injured.
This is the third incident involving a vessel in the area in recent days.
According to Centcom, American forces targeted Settebello after it allegedly ignored their repeated orders.
An aircraft “fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces”, it said.
The military said it “disabled” the vessel while it was sailing through the Gulf of Oman and accused it of violating “the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran”.
The Indian foreign ministry condemned the “attack on the commercial vessel Settebello”, while confirming that 21 of its Indian crew had been rescued with the assistance of the Omani navy.
“The targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end,” it said.
Two unnamed sources told Reuters that New Delhi summoned the US deputy chief of mission in India and conveyed a “strong protest” over the incident on 10 June.
Settebello reported an engine room fire about 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Sohar port, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency.
The Omani navy responded to the distress call from the crew, according to the British maritime risk management group Vanguard.
According to the tracking platform MarineTraffic, the tanker was partially loaded and was last recorded off the Omani coast on 1 June.
The attack on Settebello comes during a broader American campaign against Iran-linked shipping.
The US blockade began on 13 April after Iran restricted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil and gas routes.
Centcom said its forces had disabled eight vessels since the blockade began. It said that 134 ships had changed course after complying with US instructions, while 42 vessels carrying humanitarian supplies were allowed to continue.
The military said there had been no reported deaths linked to previous blockade operations.
Just two days before the Settebello attack, US forces disabled another tanker, the Marivex, after it allegedly attempted to sail to an Iranian port in violation of the blockade.
The Settebello attack drew concern from the international maritime community.
“I strongly condemn any act from any party that endangers the lives of seafarers and the safety of international shipping. This is simply unacceptable,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary general of the UN’s shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, said.
