A US warplane fired on and disabled a tanker in the Gulf of Oman that was attempting to transport oil from Iran in violation of a US blockade, the US military said Wednesday.
The aircraft "fired precision munitions into the ship's engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces," US Central Command said in a post on X, identifying the vessel as the Palau-flagged MT Settebello.
India has since summoned the senior US diplomat in New Delhi Wednesday to lodge "strong protest" after the attack left three Indian crewmembers missing.
Twenty-one other Indian crew members were rescued from the commercial vessel, with the foreign ministry condemning the attack in a statement. UK maritime agency UKMTO initially reported one dead and two missing among the crew.
British maritime security company Vanguard Tech first said the ship identified as Palau-flagged tanker Settebello had "transmitted a distress call stating that its engine room had been struck by a missile while operating off Sohar in the Gulf of Oman" and that there was a fire onboard.
