A Panama-flagged crude oil tanker carrying 27 Indian crew members, MT LOUISE 1, was struck by limpet mines in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday at a location 46 km northeast of Oman’s Khasab as verified by the British navy agency United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, after a small boat neared the vessel and attached two magnetic mines to its hull, resulting in detonations that started a fire in the engine room and temporarily disabled operations, though the crew promptly extinguished the fire with no environmental damage recorded, enabling the tanker to resume its trip. Reuters highlighted that this event marks the initial successful deployment of limpet mines in this strategic waterway since the US-Iran conflict began in February, a period marked by escalating attacks on merchant ships as Iran targets vessels for alleged transit restriction violations to exert influence over the strait and pressure Washington. According to the Greece-based maritime risk management group Marisks, limpet mines are cheap, easily available, and have been utilized in the region since 2017, with experts telling Reuters that deploying small craft to attach these explosives onto the hulls of moving ships is a low-tech, inexpensive, and highly efficient method. Addressing the safety of the citizens, Sarbananda Sonowal, the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, confirmed through an official statement that all the Indian sailors are safe and have suffered no injuries.
