The Royal Navy of Oman (RNO), in coordination with the Maritime Security Centre (MSC), carried out an evacuation operation for 25 crew members of a merchant vessel (RITI), flying the flag of the Republic of Panama.
The ship was targeted, resulting in a fire on board and the evacuation took place 1.6 nautical miles off the coast of the Musandam Governorate, where the crew members were provided with the necessary medical care.
The crew members were provided with medical care, the Omani statement said, without giving details.
The Marine Traffic ship-tracking website described the RITI as a crude oil tanker.
US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said in a video released on Friday that US forces had “successfully cleared the strait’s internationally recognised primary transit routes of Iranian sea mines”.US forces remain “present to ensure that all primary transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz remain free and clear,” he added.
Cooper said he visited some of the more than 50,000 US service members in the region, repeating earlier statements that Washington has helped Gulf countries export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude via the strait since summer.
British maritime security agency UKMTO said that a ship 40 nautical miles 74km south of Lavan island in Iran was struck on Friday by an unknown projectile, which caused a fire onboard.”
The crew of the vessel have been reported as safe and there is no reported environmental impact at this time,” the UKMTO said on X.- Blockade -Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said earlier that three oil tankers had been halted after encountering unspecified “incidents” or hitting mines.
“Two offending oil tankers, one in the eastern part and the other in the western part of the Strait of Hormuz, which were attempting to pass through the unauthorised route, encountered incidents and were brought to a halt in the waters south of the strait,” the IRGC said in a statement.
