A Palau-flagged oil tanker was hit off Oman’s Musandam peninsula on Sunday injuring four people, the country’s maritime security centre said, following drone strikes on the Gulf country’s commercial port of Duqm.
The incidents mark the first time targets in or near Oman have been hit following a wave of retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Gulf states after joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran that have plunged the region into a new war, Reuters reported.
The 20-person crew of the Skylight tanker was evacuated after the attack, which occurred about 5 nautical miles north of Musandam’s Khasab Port, the Oman Maritime Security Centre said in a post on X. The centre did not specify what hit the tanker.
Initial information indicated injuries of varying severity to four of the crew, composed of 15 Indian and five Iranian citizens, it added.
Oman’s Musandam peninsula shares control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, a vital strategic chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption flows.
Earlier on Sunday, Oman’s state news agency reported that the Duqm commercial port was hit by two drones, injuring one expatriate worker.
Debris from another drone fell in an area near fuel tanks at Duqm, but there were no casualties or material losses recorded from that incident, the agency added.
