New Delhi: US forces hit and disabled an oil tanker carrying 24 Indian crew members in the Gulf of Oman on Monday (June 8), saying it had violated Washington’s blockade of Iranian ports. Omani authorities later rescued the vessel’s occupants.Since the US’s announcement, New Delhi has not publicly addressed the US attack on the unladen tanker, the MT Marivex.Before the US’s announcement on Monday night, the Union shipping ministry had in the afternoon confirmed a fire was reported aboard the vessel, but said Indian authorities were still trying to ascertain whether it was hit by a projectile.Sources later said, largely mirroring the American military’s account, that the US-sanctioned Marivex was attempting to evade Washington’s blockade for a fourth time when US forces disabled it on Monday.In a post on X the US Central Command said that an F-18 fighter jet from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier fired a precision munition into the Palau-flagged Marivex in the Gulf of Oman as it was “attempting to sail to an Iranian port” and “after the crew failed to comply with directions from US forces”. The vessel, it added, “is no longer sailing to Iran”.Prior to the Central Command’s announcement, India’s embassy in Muscat had thanked Omani authorities for rescuing the 24 Indian nationals aboard the Marivex. The Forward Seamen’s Union of India, which was reportedly contacted by the vessel’s crew, had shared videos purportedly showing smoke billowing from a section of the ship as it sailed near a warship and of an occupant climbing onto a helicopter.Later the union said that the Indian crew had been taken to Oman’s Masirah Island.According to the ship-tracking website Marine Traffic, the Marivex had departed from Karnataka’s Karwar on May 24 and was headed to Duqm in Oman.On Monday night sources said that the Marivex, which is not Indian-owned, was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and was making its fourth attempt to evade the US blockade of Iranian ports when it was disabled on Monday.It had complied with the US Navy’s warnings on the three prior occasions over the last several days and turned back, but attempted to ‘run past’ the blockade on Monday by switching off its signaling devices, the sources added.Previously, the shipping ministry on Monday afternoon said while confirming a fire was reported aboard the Marivex that Indian authorities were still trying to determine whether it was struck by a projectile.India’s last statement on the West Asia conflict came on Monday afternoon when it said it “deeply regrets the renewed attacks in the region” – a reference to Iran and Israel’s first attacks on each other since the ceasefire of April 8.“This conflict has now lasted over 100 days and has already caused immense human suffering. It has also had a debilitating impact on the global economy and energy supplies,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said, calling on “all parties” to de-escalate, ensure civilians are not hurt and conclude peace talks.The Modi government has not directly condemned the US or Israel for triggering the conflict with their strikes on Iran starting February 28. Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks as well as by blockading the Strait of Hormuz, and since the fighting began nine Indian nationals have been killed in West Asia and India’s energy supplies have been disrupted.Delhi also did not condemn the US’s torpedo attack on the Iranian warship IRIS Dena near Sri Lanka on March 4 that killed 104 sailors aboard the frigate. Days prior, the vessel had attended exercises organised by the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam.External affairs minister S. Jaishankar said that three Iranian naval vessels – the Dena, the IRINS Lavan and IRINS Bushehr – had on February 28 asked for permission to dock in Indian ports and that New Delhi gave its green light the next day, after which the Lavan docked in Kochi. He did not say why the other two ships did not avail themselves of India’s clearance. The Bushehr went on to dock in Sri Lanka.Washington has blockaded Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s own retaliatory chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz. Although Iran had opened the waterway to commercial traffic in view of the Lebanon ceasefire in April, US President Donald Trump refused to roll back the American blockade, after which Iran resumed blocking the Hormuz Strait.