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ExclusiveKilling of Indian sailors ‘very unfortunate’, US lawmaker says, as tensions rise
Rob Wittman’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ were with families of three Indian sailors killed off coast of Oman by a US missile strike on Tuesday
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Nayan Sethin Washington
Republican Congressman Rob Wittman on Thursday called the US killing of three Indian sailors off the coast of Oman “a very, very unfortunate incident”, claiming that the US military is trying to “determine exactly what happened”.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those Indian families who lost their loved ones there in that situation,” Wittman told the South China Morning Post.
“I know that our United States military is looking into that to try to determine exactly what happened there, but again, an unfortunate incident, one we absolutely want to try to avoid.”
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A US military missile strike on the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello on Tuesday tore through the engine room and triggered a fire. Out of 28 crew members on board, 24 were Indian nationals, 21 were rescued, while three lost their lives.
The US Central Command blamed the vessel for violating the “ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran” and posted a video of the attack on social media.
Two other commercial vessels, M/T Jalveer and M/T Marivex, carrying Indian crew members, were attacked by US naval forces in the past three days, with all those on board later rescued. Two of the three attacked vessels were previously sanctioned by the US Treasury Department.
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