NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Three Indian sailors have died in a US military operation to halt a tanker off Oman as part of Washington’s efforts to blockade Iran-linked shipping, Indian authorities said on Thursday.
The deaths are the first reported since the blockade began on April 13, operations which have seen the US disable eight ships and turn back more than 100 others.
Separately, the Indian embassy in Oman on Thursday reported an incident involving another tanker off Oman.
Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed the three sailors had died.
"Sadly, three Indian seafarers initially reported missing are now confirmed dead after bodies have been located and identified," Sonowal said.
The US military's Central Command (Centcom) said a U.S. aircraft had carried out a precision strike on the Palau-flagged oil products tanker Settebello in the Gulf of Oman.
It "fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces", Centcom said.
India's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned the attack and said 21 Indian sailors had been rescued.
INDIA SUMMONS US DIPLOMAT TO PROTEST
The Omani Navy responded to the Settebello’s distress call after it reported an engine fire following the US strike, British maritime risk management group Vanguard said.
India summoned the US deputy chief of mission to the country after lodging a "strong protest" over the incident, two Indian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Family members of Shivanand Chaurasia, one of the sailors who died, told reporters he had gone to sea about nine months ago and had told his father earlier this week that everything was fine.
The US attacks on vessels carrying Indian seafarers come ahead of next week's Group of Seven summit where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold bilateral talks with US President Donald Trump. Centcom said the Settebello "violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran".
It said the US blockade had disabled eight non-compliant vessels, redirected 134 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass.
US forces disabled the unladen Marivex oil tanker, which also had Indian crew aboard, in the Gulf of Oman on Monday after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port.
India is the world’s third-largest supplier of seafarers, with more than 300,000 sailors working in global shipping fleets, according to government data. Ships being targeted by the US blockade include Iranian vessels as well as so-called shadow fleet tankers, which are typically older vessels without Western insurance used to transport sanctioned oil and sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo and movements.
"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 on Wednesday.