Iran Seizes Oil Tanker In Gulf Waters

Iran’s army has said it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it collided with an Iranian boat, injuring several crewmen, state media reported.

“A Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker was seized by the Iranian army’s naval force in the Persian Gulf after it collided with an Iranian boat in the Gulf of Oman and tried to flee,” the army statement said on Thursday.

“Two members of the boat’s crew are missing, and several were injured due to the collision of the ship with the boat.”

Earlier, the US Navy said Iranian forces seized a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters.

Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed the tanker in the Gulf of Oman just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon.

It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston, Texas, in the United States.

The waters where the US-bound ship was seized, near the Strait of Hormuz, are a chokepoint for at least a third of the world’s seaborne oil.

In a statement issued earlier, the US Navy had said Iranian naval forces had seized the Advantage Sweet oil tanker while it had been “transiting international waters” in the Gulf of Oman.

“The Iranian government should immediately release the oil tanker,” the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet added, denouncing Iran’s “continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters.”

Iran and the US have traded barbs in recent years over a spate of incidents in the sensitive waters of the Gulf.

The seizure on Thursday is the latest incident in the Strait of Hormuz where ships have been mysteriously attacked, drones downed, and oil tankers seized.

Aljazeera/Shakirat Sadiq