New Delhi: After a Thai cargo vessel en route to Gujarat’s Kandla was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz – for which Iran has claimed responsibility – on Wednesday (March 11), India said it “deplores” the targeting of commercial shipping and called for an end to such incidents.“India deplores the fact that commercial shipping is being made a target of military attacks in the ongoing conflict in West Asia,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement.“Precious lives, including of Indian citizens, have already been lost in multiple such attacks”, the “intensity and lethality” of which “only seems to be increasing”, the ministry said. It added that “targeting commercial shipping and endangering innocent civilian crew members, or otherwise impeding freedom of navigation and commerce” ought to be “avoided”.In line with other official statements condemning Tehran’s retaliatory attacks in the Gulf, the latest MEA statement did not name Iran. New Delhi has also not condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that precipitated the conflict.The Thailand-flagged MV Mayuree Naree bulk carrier was attacked off the Omani coast in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday morning around eight hours after it had departed from the UAE’s Khalifa port, a spokesperson of the Royal Thai Navy said.Thai officials at the embassy in Muscat were asked to seek assistance and the Omani navy rescued 20 of the Mayuree Naree‘s 23 Thai crew members, the spokesperson said. The Gulf country’s forces were also trying to rescue the three remaining persons aboard the vessel, he continued.Precious Shipping, owner of the Mayuree Naree, was cited by the Bangkok Post as saying that the crew was made up of 23 Thai nationals. The ship was hit by two projectiles, which damaged the engine room and caused a fire. The three persons who remained on board were believed to have been trapped in the engine room, per the newspaper.Although the Thai Navy said that the reason for the attack was being investigated, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that its fighters had fired on and stopped by the Mayuree Naree after it allegedly ‘ignored warnings’ and ‘illegally insisted on passing through the Strait of Hormuz’.According to Precious Shipping’s website, the Mayuree Naree was built in 2008 at Hindustan Shipyard’s facility in Visakhapatnam.Alongside it two other ships – the Japanese-origin One Majesty and the Greek-origin Star Gwyneth – were also damaged on Wednesday by projectiles of unknown provenance in the Persian Gulf. No casualties were reported, said the International Maritime Organisation, whose tracker counts 13 confirmed attacks on vessels in the region since March 1.Traffic along the strait key to global maritime traffic has virtually ground to a stop amid the conflict triggered by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. The latter’s military said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency that it would “not allow even a single litre of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of [the] US and its friends”. “You cannot keep oil and energy prices artificially low,” it said.For India, which imports 45% of its LNG needs, 60% of its LPG needs and close to 90% of its crude oil needs, the disruption in traffic along the Hormuz has triggered fuel rationing given that significant chunks of these fuel imports must traverse the chokepoint.There have been two Indian fatalities in the conflict, both of whom were aboard the MKD Vyom and MV Skylight merchant vessels that came under attack off the Omani coast. Another Indian national who was aboard the Skylight is considered missing.