NEW DELHI – India urged the United States to halt strikes on shipping on Thursday after three US attacks on Indian-crewed tankers this week, including one that killed three sailors.
The deaths are the first reported since a US blockade on Iran-linked shipping began on April 13, in which US forces have disabled eight ships and turned back more than 100 others.
“These attacks must cease and end,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters. “We also call for dialogue and diplomacy so that we can have an early return to peace and stability in the region.”
Jaiswal said the US Navy has attacked three ships with Indian crews this week, including one on Thursday.
US OFFICIAL SUMMONNED
He said the ministry had summoned the US chargé d’affaires in New Delhi on Wednesday to convey its “deepest concerns over the ongoing attacks” after a strike on the tanker Settebello off Oman in which three Indian sailors died.
The US embassy did not respond to requests for immediate comment.
The US military’s Central Command said a US aircraft had carried out a precision strike on the Settebello’s engine room “after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces.”
It said the Settebello “violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran.”
The ship’s manager, IOS Marine FZE, rejected claims that it ignored warnings or was carrying Iranian crude and called for a transparent international investigation into the matter.
The Settebello “holds no affiliation whatsoever with Iran or Iranian oil,” it said in a statement posted on X by Forward Seamen’s Union of India.
The Omani Navy responded to the Settebello’s distress call after it reported an engine fire, and 21 Indian sailors were rescued. Family members of Shivanand Chaurasia, one of the sailors who died, told reporters he had gone to sea about nine months ago and had told his father earlier this week that everything was fine.
Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the deaths of the three sailors was a “profound loss to our maritime family.”
India has more than 300,000 sailors working in global shipping fleets, according to government data.
MODI AND TRUMP TO MEET
The US attacks come ahead of next week’s Group of Seven summit, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold bilateral talks with US President Donald Trump.
Centcom said the US blockade had disabled eight non-compliant vessels, redirected 134 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass.
US forces disabled the unladen Marivex oil tanker, which also had an Indian crew aboard, in the Gulf of Oman on Monday after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port.
Ships being targeted by the US blockade include Iranian vessels as well as so-called shadow fleet tankers, which are typically older vessels without Western insurance used to transport sanctioned oil and sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo, and movements.
“I strongly condemn any act from any party that endangers the lives of seafarers and the safety of international shipping. This is simply unacceptable,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN’s shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, said on Wednesday.
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