One Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded when two Emirati oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the UAE’s defence ministry said yesterday, in the latest escalation in the strategic waterway.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s shipping arm ADNOC L&S later confirmed the very large crude carriers (VLCCs) Mombasa B and Al Bahyah were struck while transiting Hormuz and had sustained ‘significant damage’.
The UAE defence ministry said the tankers were attacked in the southern lane of the strait while in Omani territorial waters.
The dead crew member was aboard the Mombasa, it said.
Of the eight wounded, four were seriously injured. Six of the wounded were Indian nationals and two were Ukrainian nationals, the ministry said.
Oman’s maritime security centre later in the day said that 18 crew members of Al Bahyah, which was struck off the coast of Musandam, were evacuated from the tanker, while three others remained missing.
The attacks caused material damage to both tankers after fires broke out on board. The ministry said the fires had been brought under control.
It condemned what it called a ‘blatant attack’ and said the UAE retained ‘its full right to respond to this escalation’.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that two ‘offending’ supertankers had been hit and disabled in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring repeated warnings, turning off navigation systems and attempting to pass through what the Guards described as a mined route.
The IRGC’s statement did not name the vessels or say whether it was referring to the same tankers cited by the UAE ministry.
In the statement, the Guards accused the US of ‘inciting vessels to use an illegal route’.
Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said that a tanker had been hit by an unknown projectile while travelling 40 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Qalhat.
UKMTO said the tanker’s master reported that the projectile struck the starboard-side engine room and that all crew were safe.
Reuters could not immediately verify whether the UKMTO report referred to the same incident as the one reported by the UAE.
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