The West blamed Iran for the raid, which marked the first known fatal assault in the yearslong shadow war targeting vessels in Mideast waters. Over the past years, the rising tensions have played out in the waters of the Persian Gulf, where just last week a drone attack on an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman killed two crew members. He described the recent maritime attacks in the Persian Gulf as “completely suspicious.” No one took responsibility for the brief seizure, which underscored mounting tensions as Iran and the United States seek a resolution to their standoff over Tehran's tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.Īpparently responding to the incident, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Tuesday denied that Iran played any role. It was not clear whether the crew members, whom he identified as Indian and Indonesian, were in immediate danger. We cannot tell you exact our ETA to (get to) Sohar,” the port in Oman listed on the vessel's tracker as its destination. “Iranian people are onboard with ammunition,” the crew member says. In the audio, a crew member can be heard telling the Emirati coast guard that five or six armed Iranians had boarded the tanker.
Hints of what unfolded on the Panama-flagged asphalt tanker, called Asphalt Princess, began to emerge with the maritime radio recording, obtained by commodities pricing firm Argus Media and shared with The Associated Press. The incident - described by the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations the night before as a “potential hijack” - revived fears of an escalation in Mideast waters and ended with as much mystery as it began. The hijackers who captured a vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman departed the targeted ship on Wednesday, the British navy reported, as recorded radio traffic appeared to reveal a crew member onboard saying Iranian gunmen had stormed the asphalt tanker.
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