US Launches Missile at Tanker Bound for Indonesia's Neighbour, Sparking Fire

The United States military launched a brutal missile strike on the oil tanker Marivex off the southeastern coast of Oman on Monday (08/06/2026). An aerial attack by fighter jets from the superpower immediately sparked a massive fire in the ship’s engine room. The tense incident also caused the oil-carrying vessel to begin sinking into the sea. The oil tanker, flying the flag of Palau, was carrying 24 Indian sailors. All crew members were reported to have been evacuated safely through an emergency rescue operation. The Marivex had previously been sanctioned by the US government last December for having trade ties with Iran. The sailors trapped inside the ship sent repeated emergency messages to the centre of the Indian seafarers’ union. They reported that the United States Navy had indiscriminately bombarded the rear section of the ship. “This is Motor Tanker Marivex. There is a fire on board. The ship is sinking. The US Navy attacked our engine room with missiles. We have a leak in the hull below the ship,” the sailors stated via an emergency voice message to Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) General Secretary Manoj Yadav. The United States Central Command, or Centcom, eventually provided official confirmation of the unilateral attack. The US military argued that the tanker had violated ongoing blockade rules. “US forces disabled an empty oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on June 8 after the vessel violated the ongoing blockade against Iran by attempting to sail to an Iranian port,” Central Command explained in a written statement. Centcom also added that F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln fired high-precision ammunition into the ship’s wheelhouse. The hardline action was taken after the Marivex crew was deemed to have failed to comply with directions from US forces. As a result of the aerial attack, the US military confirmed that the Marivex was no longer sailing towards Iranian territory. However, an emergency message from the ship’s crew stated that a US warship was nearby but provided no assistance whatsoever. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) also did not respond quickly as the fire began to spread. Video footage showed a sailor pointing towards the warship that was merely observing near the incident location. The missile strike also destroyed the lifeboat on one side of the ship. Meanwhile, the lifeboat on the other side was completely inaccessible to the crew because the flames had already grown too large. Information regarding the missile strike was first received by the Indian Coast Guard through a report from a relative of one of the sailors. Indian rescue authorities immediately established emergency communications with the Oman Maritime Search and Rescue Centre (OMSC) to evacuate the victims. All the Indian sailors were eventually rescued using a helicopter after they gathered at the forward end of the ship to avoid the flames. The ship’s crew members are currently on Masirah Island in Oman in physically safe condition. “All of them are in a state of severe shock and most of them have lost their mobile phones. They are expected to arrive in India within the next two days,” Yadav said regarding the survivors’ current psychological condition. A director at India’s Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Opesh Kumar Sharma, declined to comment on the primary cause of the massive fire during a press conference. “The vessel had 24 Indian sailors on board and all are reported to be in safe condition,” he said. Sharma also added that the tanker was in an empty condition with no oil cargo. The ship’s position at the time of the incident was also confirmed to be far from the Strait of Hormuz region. According to international shipping data from Equasis, the Marivex was one of the fleets that had exited the Strait of Hormuz on April 9, just when a ceasefire was declared. At that time, the ship was carrying an oil supply from Bandar Abbas in Iran to Mangalore, India. Since that moment, the Marivex has continued to operate within the maritime conflict zone. Maritime tracking sites recorded the last port visited by the ship was Karwar in Karnataka, and the vessel was actually scheduled to head to Duqm in Oman. Currently, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre has flagged the missile attack by the United States as highly suspicious activity.