MT Liaki Freedom. (Yvon Perchoc photo via Shipspotting.com)
New Delhi: A suspected US missile strike on the Marshall Islands-flagged oil and chemical tanker MT Liaki Freedom late on Friday night killed four Indian crew members, according to a person who spoke directly to a sailor on board. This makes it the fourth attack on an Indian-crewed vessel in the Gulf region in just one week.
The attack took place close to midnight Indian time as the tanker was sailing from the Khor Fakkan anchorage to Shinas port, both in Oman, according to Marine Traffic vessel-tracking data. The strike brings to seven the number of Indian seafarers killed in US Navy operations enforcing a blockade on shipping linked to Iran since June 10.
In a recording of a call between the person and a distressed crew member – a sailor from Varanasi – the sailor described placing the bodies of the dead crew members in the ship’s deep freezer with his own hands. He said one of his colleagues had been “blown to pieces”, with the remains small enough to fit in a garbage bag. Asked directly about the cause, the sailor said it was a US strike.
India Sentinels had heard the audio. Efforts to reach the sailor on board the struck vessel have been unsuccessful, so far. India Sentinels will update this story as and when contact is established with him and more details emerge.
There was no immediate confirmation from the ministry of external affairs, the Indian Navy, or the US Central Command (Centcom) regarding the Liaki Freedom. Attempts to reach Indian officials late on Friday night went unanswered.
Fourth strike in a week
The reported attack on Liaki Freedom follows a pattern that has alarmed New Delhi through the week. On Wednesday, the Palau-flagged MT Settebello, carrying 24 Indian crew, was struck off the Omani coast, killing three sailors – the chief engineer, Patnala Suresh, the engine fitter, Shivanand Chaurasiya, and the deck cadet, Aditya Sharma. The Palau-flagged MT Marivex was also hit around the same time, though all its crew survived.
On Thursday, the Indian Navy defused a live missile warhead discovered on the oil tanker Olympic Life near Kochi, raising fears that ordnance from the Gulf strikes was being carried into Indian waters aboard damaged vessels.
On Thursday – the same day, the Guinea-Bissau-flagged MT Jalveer, with 20 Indian seafarers aboard, became the third vessel hit, when a US aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into its engine room after the crew allegedly ignored warnings to halt. All 20 crew members survived that strike, with evacuation coordinated through Omani authorities.
If confirmed that it was a US strike, the Liaki Freedom hit would mark the fourth such incident inside a week and the second to result in Indian fatalities by American hostile file, taking the overall toll of Indian sailors killed since June 10 to seven.
Blockade and mounting toll
Centcom has defended its operations in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman as a calibrated pressure campaign aimed at forcing Tehran to accept a US-brokered peace proposal, insisting the blockade applies irrespective of a vessel’s flag or crew nationality. The command says it has so far disabled nine non-compliant ships while allowing 135 compliant vessels to be redirected and 42 carrying humanitarian cargo to pass.
Following the Settebello deaths, New Delhi summoned a senior US diplomat to lodge a formal protest, and on Friday the foreign ministry, spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, renewed New Delhi’s call for “unimpeded and safe navigation” through the strait, describing the government as “deeply concerned” over the strikes. The directorate general of shipping has separately advised Indian seafarers on both Indian- and foreign-flagged vessels to exercise the “highest degree” of caution.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, has condemned the strikes on Indian-crewed vessels as “armed robbery and state piracy”, offering condolences to India and the families of the dead.
With Indian nationals making up close to a 10 per cent of all seafarers serving on international merchant vessels, the Gulf crisis has placed an outsized share of the human cost of the US-Iran standoff on Indian shoulders – a toll that has now claimed seven lives in a single week.
Note: This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
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