A tanker has been struck by “multiple projectiles” north of Qatar in the Gulf, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency.
The incident – a rare attack deep inside the Gulf – happened 51 nautical miles (94km) from Madinat al-Shamal with casualties reported, the UKMTO said.
Maritime intelligence firm Vanguard identified the vessel as the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged oil and chemical tanker Acers. On Saturday it was reported as sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz waterway, which connects the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.
Merchant vessels have come under repeated attack in the region since the US and Israel’s war with Iran began in February.
At least 24 seafarers have been killed in 93 confirmed incidents, according to the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The IMO said the last incident that resulted in casualties was on 9 September, when two sailors were killed in an attack on the Panama-flagged tanker El Gaia in the Strait of Hormuz, just north of Oman’s Musandam peninsula.
This is also the first reported attack on a ship this far west of the Strait of Hormuz since that same day, according to Martin Kelly, head of advisory at EOS Risk Group.
Also on Thursday, Vanguard amended an earlier report that had said there was a fire on board another tanker in the Gulf of Oman, about 40km east of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
The company clarified that there were no indications a fire occurred on the vessel, which it had identified as the Marshall Islands-flagged Dhalkut.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, was effectively closed after the start of the Iran war due to Tehran’s missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels and a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Iran reached a preliminary agreement to end the war and reopen the strait in June, but it collapsed within weeks after Iranian attacks on shipping resumed and the US reinstated its blockade.
Iran insisted it would not give up some measure of control over the waterway and targeted vessels using a southern route through Omani waters that avoids its preferred route through Iranian waters.
To keep exports flowing from Gulf Arab states, the US military has been providing protection for tankers shuttling oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Over the past two weeks, crude exports through the waterway have averaged 12 million barrels per day (bpd), which is around 80% of pre-war levels, according to analysts from shipping data company Kpler.
