Muscat, Oman — An oil tanker capsized off the coast of Oman Monday, the sultanate's Maritime Security Center (MSC) said, adding that a search was under way for its missing crew of 16. The MSC, which is run by the Omani defense ministry, did not specify the cause of the capsize.
In a post on social media platform X, it said a "Comoros-flagged oil tanker capsized" 25 nautical miles southeast of Ras Madrakah, near the port town of Duqm on Monday.
Search and rescue operations were "initiated with the relevant authorities," it added, without providing further details.
In a statement on Tuesday, the MSC identified the vessel as the Prestige Falcon oil tanker, saying it had 16 crew on board — 13 Indians and three Sri Lankans.
"The crew of the ship are still missing," it said, noting that the search continued.
The vessel had been headed for the Yemeni port city of Aden, according to shipping website marinetraffic.com, which said it departed from the port of Hamriya, in Dubai.
Aden is the last major Yemeni city held by the country's internationally recognized government, which has been engaged in a civil war since 2014 with the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement.
The war in the already impoverished nation has left tens of thousands of people dead and created one of the most dire humanitarian crises on the planet. It is viewed largely as a proxy war between two regional powers — Shiite Muslim-ruled Iran, backing the Houthis, and Saudi Arabia, which is ruled by a Sunni Muslim monarchy.
The Houthis have waged a damaging campaign of missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the strategic waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from Oman. There was no indication that the Prestige Falcon had been caught up in the Houthi bombardment, which included strikes targeting ships more than 1,000 miles away in the Red Sea as recently as Monday.
The Yemeni rebels say the attacks are in support of the Palestinian people amid Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The strikes have targeted not only commercial vessels — including one deadly attack — but U.S. and allied warships in the region.
U.S. and British forces have targeted Houthi missile and drone launch sites in Yemen with missile strikes for months, but the joint operations have had little impact on the rebels' ability to launch attacks.
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