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The US military fired at an empty tanker for its suspected involvement in the Iranian oil trade this week as Washington continues to enforce a blockade of the Islamic Republic’s ports.
An American fighter jet fired a precision munition into the Marivex’s engineering and steering spaces on Monday as it attempted to sail from the Gulf of Oman toward Iran, the US Central Command said . The products tanker was crewed by 24 Indian nationals, a government official in New Delhi said before the Centcom statement was released.
There was an exchange of communication between the ship and the US Navy before the incident, said Indian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, adding that all 24 crew members were rescued.
Ship-tracking data showed the Marivex, which is falsely flagged to Madagascar, appeared to be trying to sail past the US’s blockade line that runs from the easternmost tip of Oman to the Iran-Pakistan border. In the past week, the vessel had twice sailed northeast along the Omani coast toward the line, where US warships are stationed, before turning around.
The small tanker of around 12,800 deadweight tons is owned by Panama-based Arihant Shipping Inc., according to database Equasis. Arihant Shipping, and India’s foreign affairs and shipping ministries didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The vessel was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department under its previous name Arihant for transporting Iranian fuel oil and bitumen. Marivex recently delivered a cargo, believed to have loaded from the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaee, to Mangalore and Karwar in India, ship-tracking data from Kpler show.
The US has been enforcing a blockade of ships sailing to and from Iranian ports since mid-April, as it seeks to increase pressure on Iran to end its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. So far, American forces have disabled seven non-compliant vessels and redirected 134 ships, the Central Command said.
Iran exported 14 million tons of fuel oil last year, with most of it going to the United Arab Emirates, Kpler data show. The country also delivered 734,000 tons of bitumen asphalt, with nearly two-thirds of those volumes heading to China and India.