NEW DELHI: Fears of American attacks are growing among thousands of Indian seafarers on duty near the Strait of Hormuz, their union said on Thursday, after three were killed in a US strike off the coast of Oman.
Twenty-four Indian crew members were aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello, which was hit by US forces in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday evening. The US Central Command said the motor tanker was “attempting to transport oil from Iran” and a US aircraft “fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room.”
While the Omani navy managed to rescue 21 Indian sailors, three remained missing.
On Thursday afternoon, India’s shipping minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, announced on social media that the missing were “now confirmed dead after bodies have been located and identified.”
The victims are a chief engineer, a cadet and a fitter, according to the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, a labor union representing sailors working aboard commercial vessels.
