MUSCAT, March 1 — A Palau-flagged oil tanker under US sanctions was hit today off Oman’s Musandam peninsula, injuring four people, the country’s maritime security centre said, without specifying what hit the vessel. The attack followed earlier drone strikes elsewhere in the Gulf country, at the commercial port of Duqm on the Arabian Sea. The incidents mark the first time targets in or near Oman have been hit following a wave of retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Gulf states after joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran that have plunged the region into a new war.
The 20-person crew of the Skylight tanker was evacuated after the attack, which occurred about 5 nautical miles north of Musandam’s Khasab Port, on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Oman Maritime Security Centre said in a post on X.
Initial information indicated injuries of varying severity to four of the crew, composed of 15 Indian and five Iranian citizens, it added. Skylight’s registered owner is Sea Force Inc and it is managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, LSEG data shows. Both could not be immediately reached for comment.
The US Treasury in December 2025 sanctioned Red Sea Ship Management and Skylight, among other vessels, accusing the management company and its owner of operating a “shadow fleet” to transport Iranian petroleum products in the Gulf.
Ship monitoring service Tankertrackers.com described Skylight as a small tanker that was mostly used for fuelling other vessels and had been anchored in Musandam governorate since February 22.
Oman’s Musandam peninsula shares control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, a vital strategic chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption flows.
Earlier today, Oman’s state news agency reported that the Duqm commercial port was hit by two drones, injuring one expatriate worker.
Debris from another drone fell in an area near fuel tanks at Duqm, but there were no casualties or material losses recorded from that incident, the agency added. — Reuters
