TEHRAN ( Halbeeg News) – 44 crew members have been rescued from two tankers following reported explosions targeting ships at the strait of Hormuz.
According to sources, three explosions went off on board the tanker.
One of the tankers attacked has sunk according to an Iranian news agency.
The report says the Front Altair, an oil tanker owned by Norwegian shipping agency sunk after being damaged in an incident in the Gulf of Oman.
The US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is assisting two tankers in the Gulf of Oman after receiving distress calls from the vessels amid a “reported attack”.
“US naval forces in the region received two separate distress calls at a 6:12 am local time and a second one at 7:00 am,” the fleet said in a statement issued on Thursday. “US Navy ships are in the area and are rendering assistance.”
The statement came after the United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations, which is run by the British navy, put out an alert earlier on Thursday claiming an unspecified incident had taken place in the area. It did not elaborate further but said it was investigating the incident and urged “extreme caution” amid heightened US and Iran tensions.
Thursday’s maritime alert comes about a month after an attack on oil tankers off the coast of the UAE.
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