A US fighter jet fired at a tanker in the Gulf of Oman to prevent it from violating the American blockade of Iran, sparking a fire and forcing the vessel’s Indian crew to evacuate.
The MT Marivex was sailing in international waters towards Iran when it was struck by an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Centcom said. The attack caused a fire onboard, but all 24 Indian crew members of the Palau-flagged vessel were able to evacuate safely with help from the Omani authorities, Indian and US officials said on Monday.
The jet fired into the ship’s engineering and steering spaces to disable it after the crew failed to comply with directions from US forces, Centcom said. “Marivex is no longer sailing to Iran,” it added.
The unladen oil tanker reported a fire at around 1.30pm local time on Monday, with the crew requesting immediate evacuation.
The attack reportedly damaged the tanker’s lifeboats, leaving the crew unable to escape without help.
Images of the rescue operation showed an Omani naval helicopter lifting the crew from the ship’s deck as a huge cloud of smoke rose into the sky.
India’s shipping ministry acknowledged that the tanker had 24 Indian crew members onboard. It said a fire was reported on the vessel, without commenting on its cause, and said all crew members had been evacuated safely.
The Indian Coast Guard said its Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Mumbai took part in the rescue mission.
The MT Marivex was sanctioned by the US treasury in December 2025 when it was named Arihant. It was one of 29 vessels involved in the Iranian oil petrochemical trade, the treasury said at the time, and had transported hundreds of thousands of barrels of Iranian fuel oil and bitumen within the Persian Gulf since July that year.
An unnamed Indian official told Reuters the tanker had made three attempts to transit but was turned away each time by the US navy. It was struck during a fourth attempt to run past the blockade by using Omani territorial waters on Monday.
The strike on Marivex was the seventh on a commercial vessel by the US military since it launched a blockade of Iranian ports in April. Iran had earlier curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a major global oil route, after the US and Israel launched a war on the Middle East nation.