New Delhi, June 11: Reflecting an outrageous sequence of events, the US military once again hit a vessel with Indian crew on board near the coast of Oman, in third such incident in 4 days.
The Guinea-Bissau-flagged oil tanker MT Jalveer was attacked, a day after a Palau-flagged vessel was hit in which 3 Indian nationals were killed.
MT Jalveer had 20 Indian crew on board and all of them were rescued safely, said Indian Embassy in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
“A U.S. aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from U.S. forces,” said US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) in a post on social media.
It said the U.S. forces “disabled” the tanker in the Gulf of Oman “after the vessel violated the blockade against Iran by attempting to transport Iranian oil, marking the third commercial ship disabled by American forces this week.”
It pointed out that earlier this week, U.S. aircraft disabled Palau-flagged vessels M/T Marivex and M/T Settebello on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
“Marivex violated the blockade by attempting to sail to an Iranian port and Settebello attempted to transport Iranian oil,” the CENTCOM said.
All these vessels had Indians on board.
Among these incidents, the attack on M/T Settebello on Tuesday resulted in the killing of 3 Indians, while 21 others were rescued safely by the authorities of Oman.
After the Settebello attack, India’s Ministry of External Affairs summoned Acting US Ambassador in New Delhi last evening and lodged a protest over the attack.
Despite that, the US again targeted a vessel carrying Indians, causing an outrage in the country.
The attacks come as fighting flared up again today between the US and Iran. (NVI)
