Oman’s navy evacuated 25 crew members from the merchant ship RITI on Friday after the vessel was targeted and caught fire, according to Oman’s Maritime Security Centre. The ship, which flies the Panamanian flag, was identified by the ship-tracking website Marine Traffic as a crude oil tanker. The Omani statement noted that the crew received medical care, though specific details of the treatment were not provided. Khaleej Times reported that the British maritime security agency UKMTO also noted a separate vessel was struck by an unknown projectile 40 nautical miles south of Lavan island, causing a fire onboard.
The incident occurred as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported that three oil tankers were halted while crossing the Strait of Hormuz. The Guards stated that two tankers, one in the eastern part and one in the western part of the strait, encountered unspecified incidents after attempting to use a route they deemed unauthorized. A separate statement from the Guards described a supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil that stopped after an explosion, which they attributed to the vessel striking a naval mine. The Guards claimed the vessels had switched off their navigation systems and disregarded radio warnings.
The disruptions in the strait, which normally carries a fifth of global oil, have been a focal point of the Middle East war since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, according to Naharnet. In response to the ongoing maritime friction, U.S. Central Command chief Brad Cooper released a video on Friday stating that U.S. forces had cleared the strait’s primary transit routes of Iranian sea mines. Cooper noted that more than 50,000 U.S. service members are currently in the region, helping Gulf countries export over 1.5 billion barrels of crude since the summer. The United States has also implemented a counterblockade of Iranian ports to restrict Tehran’s trade capabilities, according to Khaleej Times.