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- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards seize oil tanker in Gulf of Oman - U.S. Navy
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards seize oil tanker in Gulf of Oman - U.S. Navy
'Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability'
The U.S. Navy said on Thursday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
The Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet based in Bahrain identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet and demanded its immediate release.
The "Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Advantage Sweet was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman," the navy said in a statement.
The vessel has just come from Kuwait. Its destination was listed as Houston, Texas.
“Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability,” the statement added.
The Advantage Sweet issued a distress call at 1:15 pm, while in international waters. According to the U.S. Navy, it was at least the fifth commercial vessel seized by Tehran in the past two years.
Iran's navy said the "violator" ship was captured after a collision with an Iranian ship that left two missing and several injured.
"Following the collision of an unknown ship with an Iranian vessel in the waters of the Persian Gulf two of the vessel's crew went missing and several others were injured," the Iranian navy said in a statement.
"The navy of the army, by court order, seized the violator ship, that was fleeing with the flag of the Marshall Islands, and directed it to the coastal waters of the Islamic republic of Iran," it added, according to AFP.