El Gaia Tanker Explodes Near Strait of Hormuz; 1 Indian Crew Member Missing

A crude oil tanker caught fire and exploded near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, leaving one crew member missing after the rest were pulled from the water.

The ship, El Gaia, carried 14 Indian nationals. Thirteen were rescued. India's Ministry of External Affairs condemned what it called an attack on a commercial vessel off the coast of Oman and said efforts were continuing to locate the missing crew member.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the tanker had entered a navigation zone declared closed to commercial shipping and struck naval mines. According to Iran's IRGC, fire eventually engulfed the entire vessel.

The United States rejected that account. CENTCOM said Iran had first struck El Gaia with a missile about a month earlier, leaving the ship disabled and at anchor. Iranian forces then hit the vessel again with a drone on the weekend of September 13-14, according to the US military, while it sat stationary off Oman's coast.

India's foreign ministry called the incident an attack and said it was seeking to assist the crew. The IRGC mine claim stood in direct contradiction to Washington's account, which cited two separate strikes weeks apart.

El Gaia is a Panama-flagged vessel. The explosion came about a week after Iran declared a maritime exclusion zone near the strait and as tanker freight rates in the Gulf hit record highs amid the conflict over Hormuz shipping.