Muscat: An oil tanker off the coast of Oman, with a 20-member crew – 15 of them Indian – was attacked on Sunday. Four crew members were injured. It is not known whether any Indian was among those injured.
A port in Oman also came under a drone strike. These are the first attacks on the sultanate — which mediated US-Iran talks — since Tehran launched a retaliation campaign.
The oil tanker was targeted off the coast of an exclave in the UAE. Its crew were evacuated, as reported by The New Indian Express.
“The Maritime Security Centre announced that the oil tanker (SKYLIGHT), flying the flag of the Republic of Palau, was targeted 5 nautical miles north of the port of Khasab in the governorate of Musandam,” the Oman News Agency said on X.
“The crew of the tanker, consisting of 20 people, including 15 Indians and 5 Iranians, were evacuated. Initial information indicates that four members of the ship’s crew sustained varying injuries,” it added.
“A security source reported that the commercial port of Duqm was targeted by two drones,” the news agency said in a social media post.
“One drone struck a mobile workers’ accommodation, injuring a foreign worker, while debris from the other landed near fuel tanks, causing no casualties or material damage,” it added.
AFP reported blasts in Dubai, Doha and Manama on Sunday as Iran carried out attacks in response to US and Israeli strikes that killed the country’s supreme leader and other top officials.
Reporters also heard blasts in Dubai, the Bahraini capital Manama and in Qatar, where thick black smoke was seen rising on the clear morning horizon in the south of Doha.
In the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, a woman and child were injured after debris from an intercepted drone collided with a building facade at Etihad Towers, according to the Abu Dhabi Media Office.
An AFP correspondent also reported thick black smoke rising from Dubai’s southern Jebel Ali Port on Sunday morning, after authorities said debris from an interceptor had sparked a fire overnight.
