Tanker hit by multiple projectiles in Gulf off Qatar, maritime agency says
Casualties have been reported on the vessel, identified by a maritime intelligence firm as the oil and chemical tanker, Acers.
Tanker struck by multiple projectiles in Gulf off Qatar, maritime agency says
A tanker was hit by "multiple projectiles" north of Qatar in the Gulf, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said.
The incident took place 51 nautical miles (94km) from Madinat al-Shamal, and casualties were reported, according to UKMTO.
Maritime intelligence company Vanguard identified the ship as the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged oil and chemical tanker Acers, which was reported to be carrying cargo on Saturday as it headed toward the Strait of Hormuz waterway, linking the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.
Merchant ships have faced repeated attacks in the region since the US and Israel's war with Iran started in February.
At least 24 seafarers have been killed in 93 confirmed incidents, the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO) said.
The IMO said the most recent incident to cause 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.
According to Martin Kelly, head of advisory at EOS Risk Group, this is also the first reported attack on a ship this far west of the Strait of Hormuz since that same day.
Vanguard also said a fire broke out on another tanker on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, about 40km east of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It said the vessel was likely the Marshall Islands-flagged Dhalkut.
The cause of the fire remains unclear, and UKMTO has not reported an incident in the area.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, was effectively shut after the start of the Iran war because of Tehran's missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels and a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Iran reached a preliminary deal to end the war and reopen the strait in June, but it fell apart within weeks after Iranian attacks on shipping resumed and the US restored its blockade.
Iran said it would not surrender any degree of control over the waterway and targeted vessels taking a southern route through Omani waters, avoiding its preferred path through Iranian waters.
To keep exports moving from Gulf Arab states, the US military has been protecting tankers transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
Over the past two weeks, crude exports through the waterway have averaged 12 million barrels per day (bpd), about 80% of pre-war levels, according to analysts at shipping data company Kpler.