Muscat, Oman. One Indian crew member was killed and eight others were wounded after two Emirati oil tankers were struck by Iranian cruise missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
The vessels, Mombasa B and Al Bahiyah, sustained significant damage while transiting the strategic waterway, according to ADNOC’s shipping arm, ADNOC L&S.
Casualties and damage
The UAE Ministry of Defence said the tankers were targeted in the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz while in Omani territorial waters. The crew member who died was aboard the Mombasa.
Four of the eight injured crew members were seriously wounded. Six of those injured were Indian nationals and two were Ukrainian nationals, the ministry said.
Fires broke out on both vessels following the attacks, causing material damage. The ministry said the fires had been brought under control.
UAE response
The ministry condemned the incident as a “blatant attack” and said the UAE retained “its full right to respond to this escalation”.
ADNOC has been among the most active participants in a U.S. military-led operation to move Gulf crude to international buyers through ship-to-ship transfers beyond the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported last month.
U.S. Central Command, which has not acknowledged the transfers, said on July 12 that it had facilitated the transit of more than 800 vessels carrying more than 400 million barrels of crude through the strait over the previous two months.
IRGC statement
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday that two “offending” supertankers had been hit and disabled in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring repeated warnings, switching off navigation systems and attempting to pass through what it described as a mined route.
The IRGC did not name the vessels or state whether it was referring to the tankers identified by the UAE Ministry of Defence.
The Guards accused the United States of “inciting vessels to use an illegal route” and said cooperation with the “aggressor enemy” would lead to damage, delays in reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a global energy crisis.
