Two reportedly killed in attack on Israeli-linked oil tanker off Oman

An oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire has reportedly come under attack off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, authorities have said, killing two crew members, one from the UK and another from Romania.

The attack on Thursday night targeted the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street north-east of the Omani island of Masirah. The location is about 185 miles (300km) south-east of Oman’s capital, Muscat.

Israeli officials did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which came amid heightened tensions with Iran as negotiations remain stalled over Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Other Israel-linked ships have been targeted in recent months as well amid a shadow war between the two nations, with Israeli officials blaming the Islamic republic for the assaults. Israel, meanwhile, has been suspected of targeting Iran’s nuclear programme in a series of major attacks.

London-based Zodiac Maritime, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group, issued a statement saying the ship was the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street and was Japanese-owned. The British Ministry of Defence had earlier misidentified the ship’s owners.

Zodiac Maritime described the attack as “piracy”, without elaborating. It later said the attack killed two crew members, one from the UK and another from Romania, and said the company was not aware of harm to any other personnel.

“At the time of the incident the vessel was in the northern Indian Ocean, traveling from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah with no cargo onboard,” the statement from Zodiac Maritime said, naming ports in Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates respectively.

Satellite tracking data from MarineTraffic.com showed the vessel had been near where British officials said the attack occurred. However, the last signal the ship sent came early on Friday morning.

An brief initial statement from the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said an investigation was underway into the incident.

The statement did not elaborate, although it said it suspected the attack did not involve piracy. Earlier on Thursday, the British military group had said it was investigating another unexplained incident in the same area, but did not elaborate.

Oman did not acknowledge an attack and officials there did not respond to requests for comment. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Middle East, did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal and as negotiations over restoring the accord have stalled in Vienna. Since the then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018, there have been a series of ship attacks in the region suspected to have been carried out by Tehran.

Iranian media quoted foreign reports on the attack, but did not elaborate. The attack came the night after US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, speaking from Kuwait, warned Iran that talks in Vienna over the nuclear deal could not go on “indefinitely”.

This is the second time this month a ship tied to Ofer apparently has been targeted. In early July, the Liberian-flagged container ship CSAV Tyndall, once tied to Zodiac Maritime, suffered an unexplained explosion onboard while in the northern Indian Ocean, according to the US Maritime Administration.

source: theguardian.com