Standfirst: The UAE National Guard evacuated all 22 crew members of a cargo ship that caught fire in the Gulf of Oman, the state news agency WAM reported on Sunday, November 8, as cited by The National and Gulf News. The rescue capped a tense weekend at sea, during which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two tankers had struck mines near the Strait of Hormuz and US forces disabled a cargo vessel accused of running the American blockade.
Crew evacuated after distress call
According to the National Guard, a Coast Guard unit launched the operation after the ship’s crew reported the fire. Specialised teams located the vessel, reached it and evacuated everyone on board. The 22 crew members, all of Arab nationalities, received first aid and were handed over to the relevant authorities. They were described as being in stable condition.
The authorities did not release the ship’s name, its flag or its exact position, and the cause of the fire had not been established at the time of publication. In its statement, the National Guard said the operation reflected its readiness to respond to emergencies at sea and its commitment to protecting lives and strengthening maritime safety in the region.
It was the second rescue of its kind in about a month. On October 10, the same service evacuated 22 Asian crew members, many of them Indian nationals, from the oil tanker MT GEM No. 2 after a fire broke out on board in the Gulf, Khaleej Times reported at the time.
Unverified Iranian claim of mine strikes
The incident came as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said two oil tankers had caught fire after hitting sea mines in and to the east of the Strait of Hormuz. In statements carried by the Tasnim news agency and Iranian state television, and reported by Al Jazeera, the IRGC said the vessels had switched off their navigation and identification systems and attempted to use what it called an unauthorised or “unsafe” route. It said the tankers “suffered severe damage and stopped after hitting sea mines”.
The IRGC did not name the vessels, their flags or owners, and gave no information on casualties. Independent confirmation of the mine strikes was not available. The Guards repeated that the strait remains closed until Iran’s conditions are met, and accused US forces of trying to escort tankers through mined areas.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) has previously disputed similar Iranian claims. On October 28 it said that all internationally recognised primary transit routes through the strait had been cleared of mines and that thousands of commercial vessels continued to use them, according to Gulf News. No specific US response to the latest claim had been reported when this article was published.
US forces disable the M/V Huda
Separately, CENTCOM said a US military aircraft fired precision munitions at the stern of the St Kitts-flagged cargo vessel M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman on Saturday, November 7. It said the ship had visited an Iranian port, ignored repeated warnings and made several attempts to breach the US naval blockade of Iran. US forces directed the crew to leave the targeted spaces before the strike, which disabled the vessel, Reuters reported via Arab News.
CENTCOM says that since July its forces have redirected 147 commercial vessels that complied with the blockade and disabled five merchant ships that refused, Al Jazeera reported.
A strategic waterway under strain
The Gulf of Oman links the Strait of Hormuz to the Arabian Sea and is one of the region’s main trade routes. Commercial traffic through the strait has fallen sharply during the eight-month conflict between Iran and the United States, amid repeated attacks on vessels and US enforcement of the blockade of Iranian ports. For crews still operating in the area, emergency services such as the UAE Coast Guard, which works with federal and emirate-level agencies, have become a critical line of support.
