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A fire erupted on a Palau-flagged tanker with a crew of 24 Indians when it was attacked by the US Navy off the coast of Oman on Monday, and all crew members of the vessel sanctioned by the US were later evacuated to safety by the Oman Air Force.
The fire was reported by the crew of MT Marivex, which was not carrying any cargo, at 1.30 pm, Opesh Kumar Sharma, director in the shipping ministry, told a media briefing. “The vessel was well out of the Strait of Hormuz, and well clear to the south,” he said, adding that all the crew members were safe.
Several hours later, the crew members were evacuated by a helicopter of the Oman Air Force. The Indian embassy in Muscat thanked Omani authorities for rescuing all 24 Indian crew members in a social media post.
An audio recording of a SOS message sent by the crew of Marivex featured a crew member saying that the vessel was on fire after a “US Navy attack by missile on our engine room”.
People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity Marivex had been black-listed and sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US treasury department. OFAC is the body that acts against vessels involved in violating US sanctions on the sale of Iranian and Russian oil.
“The vessel is not Indian-owned. Over the last few days, Marivex made four attempts to evade the US blockade of Iranian ports,” one of the people said. “On three occasions, the vessel turned away after repeated warnings by the US Navy.”
The people said Marivex made a fourth attempt to get past the US blockade by using Oman’s territorial waters on Monday. The vessel switched off its signal devices so that it could go undetected. This pattern made it clear the vessel’s intentions were not “above board”, they said.
The shipping ministry coordinated with the external affairs ministry, the Indian mission in Oman, the defence ministry and Indian Navy to ensure the safety of the crew members.
According to marinetraffic.com, a website that tracks the movement of merchant vessels, Marivex was sailing from Karwar in Karnataka to Duqm in Oman.
The Forward Seamen’s Union of India, one of the country’s oldest organisations representing seafarers, said in a social media post that the “attack on a vessel carrying 24 Indian seafarers…is a matter of serious concern”. It added, “FSUI urges swift and coordinated action to ensure the safety of the crew, provide support to their families, and uphold the security of seafarers at sea.”
Oman is located adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran since the start of a conflict with Israel and the US in February. The attack on Marivex came against the backdrop of a fresh flare-up in hostilities between Israel and Iran since Sunday.
Ten Indians have died in West Asia since the start of the conflict, including three seafarers who were killed in attacks on merchant vessels in the early days of the hostilities.
Rezaul H Laskar is the Foreign Affairs Editor at Hindustan Times. His interests include movies and music.
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