The United States and Iran are disputing each other’s accounts over an attack on the Panama-flagged oil tanker El Gaia off the coast of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, in a statement carried by Iranian media, says the tanker hit naval mine while trying to pass through what they call a restricted area south of the Strait. The IRGC says the vessel caught fire and was engulfed in flames. It said warnings had previously been issued about the dangers of using what it described as an “illegal passage.”
However, the US Central Command has rejected this account. CENTCOM says the tanker was first hit by an Iranian missile last month and rendered inoperable and that it was struck again by an Iranian drone this weekend, while the ship sat in waters off the coast of Oman.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) India had on Sunday stated that the vessel was carrying 14 Indians among its crew, of which one seafarer had been missing.
