Oman’s navy has rescued 25 crew members from a Panama-flagged merchant ship that caught fire after being targeted off the Musandam coast, near the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s Maritime Security Centre said on Friday.
The centre said the Royal Navy of Oman evacuated the crew of the vessel RITI and gave them the necessary medical care. It did not say who was behind the attack, what kind of attack it was, or whether anyone was hurt. Ship-tracking site MarineTraffic lists the RITI as a crude oil tanker.
The incident comes as shipping through the strait remains under heavy pressure. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Friday that three tankers using what Tehran calls an “unauthorised route” had stopped after “incidents” or hitting mines, while US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said US forces had cleared the main transit routes of Iranian sea mines.
The strait normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil. Iran has restricted traffic there since the West Asia war began on February 28, and the United States has answered with a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.
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