Oman said on Friday it had rescued 25 crew members from a merchant ship that was targeted and set ablaze, as Iran reported four oil tankers were halted while crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Muscat’s navy “carried out an evacuation operation for 25 crew members of the merchant ship, flying the Panamanian flag, after it was targeted, which led to a fire on board,” Oman’s Maritime Security Centre said in a statement.
The crew members were provided with medical care, the Omani statement said, without giving details. The Marine Traffic ship-tracking website described the ship as a crude oil tanker.
Iran’s conflict with the United States and its regional allies showed fresh signs of escalation on Friday, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claiming that four oil tankers had caught fire and exploded in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz while attempting to navigate what Tehran described as “unauthorised routes.”
According to Iranian media, the IRGC Navy said Friday the tankers were attempting to use shipping routes that Iran considers unauthorised.
It claimed that one of the vessels, the fourth oil tanker, carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil, struck a naval mine, triggering an explosion and fire while navigating the “unauthorised southern route through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“This evening, the fourth oil tanker, a supertanker, suffered a severe explosion and is burning, after hitting a mine, regardless of the warnings of the IRGC Navy not to transit through the unauthorized southern route of the Strait of Hormuz. The offending tanker also tried to leave the unauthorized southern route of Hormuz with more than two million barrels of crude oil, regardless of the IRGC’s warnings.
“This is the fourth oil tanker that has been burning in the Strait of Hormuz since the early hours of today,” it added.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said later on Friday that a vessel was hit by an unknown projectile on the port side 40 nautical miles south of Iran’s Lavan Island, causing a fire onboard.
The crew were reported safe and there was no immediate environmental impact, the British agency said.
The UKMTO later said in a separate statement that a crude oil tanker was struck by an unknown projectile whilst completing an outbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz.
It remains unclear whether these incidents involved the same vessels cited by the IRGC.
U.S. Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper said in a video released on Friday that US forces had “successfully cleared the strait’s internationally recognised primary transit routes of Iranian sea mines.”
US forces remain “present to ensure that all primary transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz remain free and clear,” he added.
Cooper said he visited some of the more than 50,000 US service members in the region, repeating earlier statements that Washington has helped Gulf countries export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude via the strait since summer.
