A Cyprus-flagged container ship remained disabled off Oman, with one Indian seafarer still missing, after an Iranian strike sparked an engine-room fire, forced the crew to abandon the vessel and triggered another large-scale US attack on Iran. 

The GFS Galaxy was struck near its stern at about 22:40 UTC on Saturday while travelling eastwards through the Strait of Hormuz, according to maritime reports. The impact caused extensive damage to the engine room and left the ship unable to continue its voyage. 

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre placed the incident about nine nautical miles east of Oman, while Oman’s Maritime Security Centre said authorities responded to a distress call when the vessel was around 4.4 nautical miles off Musandam, the Omani peninsula overlooking the strait. 

Omani authorities rescued 23 of the 24 crew members, provided them with medical care and continued searching for the missing sailor. India’s government said 11 Indian nationals had been aboard, with ten rescued and one still unaccounted for. Its embassy in Muscat was coordinating with Omani authorities during the search operation. 

Cyprus government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said no Cypriot nationals were among the crew. The Shipping Deputy Ministry has opened an investigation, remains in contact with the ship’s management company and is monitoring developments with the relevant authorities. 

The 2009-built vessel is around 304 metres long and 40 metres wide, with a capacity of roughly 7,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. Shipping records list it under the Cyprus flag with IMO number 9401271. 

The ship is beneficially owned by the UAE’s AD Ports Group and operated by Global Feeder Shipping. It had departed Jebel Ali and was heading eastwards on a service connecting Gulf ports with Malaysia, China and South Korea. Its automatic identification system was reportedly switched off during the passage, reflecting growing concerns that publicly transmitted ship positions could increase vessels’ exposure to targeting. 

US Central Command blamed forces belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for what it described as an attack on a commercial ship lawfully using an international waterway. 

Iran gave a different account, saying its forces had fired a “warning shot” after the ship used what Tehran described as an unauthorised route and ignored instructions to change course. The exact sequence of events and the type of weapon used have not been independently confirmed. 

The incident was the fourth reported Iranian attack on a commercial vessel in the strait since July 6. Previous attacks involved the Marshall Islands-flagged LNG carrier Al Rekayyat, the Saudi-flagged tanker Wedyan and the Liberia-flagged Cyprus Prosperity. 

In response, US forces launched their third round of strikes against Iran within a week. Central Command said around 140 Iranian military targets were hit using fighter aircraft, drones and warships, including missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communications networks and coastal surveillance positions. 

Iran subsequently announced that the Strait of Hormuz had been closed until what it called the end of US interference in the region. However, the southern route, running close to Oman, remained available and had been widened to accommodate traffic in both directions. 

The Joint Maritime Information Centre maintained the threat level at “severe”, warning vessels of possible mine dangers, radio contact from naval forces and continued electronic interference. It said “ships could use the route without prior coordination and that no authority controlled passage or charged a fee.” 

Traffic nevertheless remained sharply below normal levels. JMIC data showed that the strait historically handled around 138 vessel movements per day, compared with 33 transits on July 7 and 22 on July 8. Its assessment warned that deliberate hostile action was now considered likely, with ships transmitting their position potentially facing Iranian instructions to divert towards the northern route.