An Indian seafarer was killed in an attack on a US-owned oil tanker near Iraq, taking the number of Indian sailors killed since the start of the Iran-US conflict to three.
The US-owned oil tanker Safesea Vishnu, which was sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands, was attacked near Basra, Iraq, on Wednesday, the Indian embassy in Baghdad said on social media on Thursday.
An Indian crew member “unfortunately lost his life” in the attack, and the remaining 15 Indian crew members of the tanker were “evacuated to a safe place”, the embassy said.
Indian officials said on Wednesday that 24 Indian-flagged merchant vessels are currently in the Persian Gulf, with a total of 24 Indian-flagged vessels with 677 Indian seafarers located to the west of the Strait of Hormuz, and four vessels with 101 Indian seafarers to the east.
Indians make up almost 12% of the global seafaring workforce, with a total of more than 320,000 active sailors, and attacks on merchant vessels during most conflicts in West Asia have resulted in Indian casualties.
