India protests after U.S. strike on tanker leaves three missing

Three Indian sailors were missing and 21 crew members had been rescued after a U.S. strike hit the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello off the coast of Oman, turning a military enforcement action into a human emergency for a multinational crew. India said 24 Indian seafarers were aboard the tanker and summoned U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Jason Meeks in New Delhi to deliver a strong protest over the attack.

U.S. Central Command said the strike took place at 11:14 p.m. on June 9, when a U.S. aircraft fired precision munitions into the vessel’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to follow American directions. CENTCOM said it had disabled the tanker as part of its blockade of Iran-related shipping, and described the Settebello strike as the second consecutive day it had taken a tanker out of service in the Gulf of Oman.

The scale of the enforcement campaign is widening the risk to commercial crews moving through one of the world’s most sensitive waterways. CENTCOM said it had disabled eight non-compliant vessels since starting the blockade on April 13, redirected 134 ships that complied with instructions, and allowed 42 vessels carrying humanitarian aid to pass. The tanker, according to the information available, was carrying oil from Iran, placing it squarely inside the dispute over shipments linked to Tehran.

For India, the immediate concern was the fate of its nationals at sea. The government said 21 crew members were rescued, but three Indian sailors remained missing after the attack, making the incident the first known seafarer casualties in the U.S. campaign against Iran-related shipping. The protest in New Delhi underscored how the military pressure surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global oil and gas flows, is now reaching far beyond state actors and oil prices. It is putting merchant mariners, many of them foreign nationals, at the center of a confrontation that is reshaping the security of commercial shipping in the Gulf of Oman.