The air force of Oman evacuated the mostly Indian crew of a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker called On Peace on Wednesday after it was struck by a projectile and set ablaze while passing through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
Oman’s defense ministry said the tanker was attacked, presumably by Iran, while it was about nine nautical miles away from Oman’s port city of Limah in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.K. Maritime Operations (UKMTO) center reported the ship developed a fire in its engine room after the attack.
On Peace is a medium-sized oil tanker, known as an Aframax tanker, that is flagged from Panama and owned by a Dubai-based trading company called Onex DMCC. Its operations are managed by a firm called Anglo-Eastern Tanker Management Hong Kong. It reportedly has a crew of 19, and 17 of them are Indian nationals.
Data from ship tracking services suggests the ship was running dark through the Strait of Hormuz, with its transponder turned off, to avoid being attacked by Iranian terrorists. It reportedly discharged fuel oil at the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late August. Fujairah has played a key role in refueling ships and rebuilding oil exports after Iran began attacking civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz this year.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said at least 12 of the On Peace crew were injured in the attack, and 11 of them were Indian nationals. Oman said the injured were evacuated from the ship and “transported to the Khasab hospital in Musandam governate” for medical treatment.
“The continuing incidents of attacks on shipping in the region remain a cause of deep concern for India. We reiterate our call for an immediate cessation of such attacks in the interests of peace and stability in the region,” the Indian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The Indian foreign ministry condemned the attack and thanked Oman for helping to rescue the crew.
No immediate claim of responsibility was made for the strike on On Peace, but UKMTO issued four warnings and an advisory for ship safety in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend and into Monday. At least five commercial vessels have reported being attacked since Saturday, representing a notable spike in threats.
One of those warnings said a ship was hailed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, a designated terrorist organization, and warned that it would be fired upon unless it abandoned its attempt to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. The ship in question complied with the IRGC’s demand.
SeaTrade Maritime News noted on Tuesday that On Peace is one of 81 ships named on a blacklist by Iran’s ersatz Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) for supposedly violating Iranian “protocols” for transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
The PGSA threatened that ships on the blacklist “shall face restrictions on future passages, including fines, detention, or confiscation” if they attempt to travel through the strait.
“Iran appears to be seeking to assert greater control over the Strait of Hormuz through one of its most established instruments of coercion: fear and uncertainty,” said Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of the Marisks risk management firm, in a note this week.
“Iran does not need to stop every vessel; it needs the maritime industry to believe that any vessel could be next,” Maniatis observed.