Iran’s army has said it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it collided with an Iranian boat, state media reported.
“A Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker was seized by the Iranian army’s naval force in the Persian Gulf after it collided with an Iranian boat in the Gulf of Oman and tried to flee,” the army statement said on Thursday.
According to the Iranian officials,“Two members of the boat’s crew are missing and several were injured due to the collision of the ship with the boat.”
Earlier, the US Navy said Iranian forces seized a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters.
Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed the tanker in the Gulf of Oman just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon.
It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston, Texas in the United States.
“The Iranian government should immediately release the oil tanker,” the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet added, denouncing Iran’s “continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters”.
