By Hritam Mukherjee, Nidhi Verma and Saurabh Sharma
NEW DELHI, June 11 (Reuters) - Three Indian sailors died in a U.S. military strike on a tanker off Oman
as part of Washington’s efforts to blockade Iran-linked shipping, India said on Thursday, after summoning a U.S. diplomat to demand an end to such attacks.
The deaths are the first reported since the blockade began on April 13, operations which have seen the U.S. disable eight ships and turn back more than 100 others.
The U.S. Navy has attacked three ships with Indian crews this week, including one on Thursday, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.
"These attacks must cease and end," he said. "We also call for dialogue and diplomacy so that we can have an early return to peace and stability in the region."
Jaiswal said the ministry had summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires in New Delhi on Wednesday to convey its "deepest concerns over the ongoing attacks" after a strike on the tanker Settebello off Oman in which three Indian sailors died.
The U.S. embassy did not respond to requests for immediate comment.
The U.S. military's Central Command said a U.S. aircraft had carried out a precision strike on the Settebello's engine room "after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces".
It said the Settebello "violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran".
OMANI NAVY RESCUED 21 CREWThe Omani Navy responded to the Settebello’s distress call after it reported an engine fire and 21 Indian sailors were rescued. Family members of Shivanand Chaurasia, one of the sailors who died, told reporters he had gone to sea about nine months ago and had told his father earlier this week that everything was fine.
Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the deaths of the three sailors was a "profound loss to our maritime family".
India has more than 300,000 sailors working in global shipping fleets, according to government data.
The U.S. attacks come ahead of next week's Group of Seven summit where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Centcom said the U.S. blockade had disabled eight non-compliant vessels, redirected 134 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass.
U.S. forces disabled the unladen Marivex oil tanker, which also had Indian crew aboard, in the Gulf of Oman on Monday after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port.
Ships being targeted by the U.S. blockade include Iranian vessels as well as so-called shadow fleet tankers, which are typically older vessels without Western insurance used to transport sanctioned oil and sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo and movements.
"I strongly condemn any act from any party that endangers the lives of seafarers and the safety of international shipping. This is simply unacceptable," Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN's shipping agency the International Maritime Organization, said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee, Nidhi Verma, Saurabh Sharma and Aftab Ahmed; editing by YP Rajesh and Jason Neely)
