The United Arab Emirates has rescued all 22 crew members from a cargo ship that caught fire in the Gulf of Oman, the UAE National Guard said on Sunday.
The Guard said its Coast Guard unit launched the operation after receiving a distress report from the ship’s crew. Specialist teams located the vessel, reached it and evacuated everyone on board. The rescued crew, all Arab nationals, were given first aid before being handed over to the relevant authorities, and all were reported to be in stable condition.
The National Guard did not name the vessel or say what caused the fire. It described the operation as a demonstration of its readiness to respond to maritime emergencies and its commitment to protecting lives and strengthening safety at sea.
The rescue is the second of its kind in a matter of weeks. On 10 October, the Guard’s Coast Guard division rescued 22 Asian nationals after a fire broke out aboard an oil tanker in the Arabian Gulf.
It comes at a moment of acute tension in the region’s shipping lanes. Hours before the rescue was announced, United States Central Command said American forces had disabled the St. Kitts-flagged cargo vessel M/V Huda in the Gulf of Oman after it tried to breach the US naval blockade on Iran. No official statement has linked the rescue to that incident, and the cause of the fire on the cargo ship remains unknown.
Washington has stepped up pressure on Iranian shipping in recent days. The United States has also launched a dedicated task force aimed at disrupting Iran’s land and Caspian supply routes, while Tehran has lifted a long-standing cap on the range of its ballistic missiles.
The Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz carry a large share of the world’s seaborne oil, and commercial shipping in the waterway has repeatedly been caught up in the confrontation between the United States and Iran. The rescue underlines how quickly a routine maritime emergency can unfold in one of the world’s most closely watched stretches of water.
Sources: UAE National Guard (via X and the Emirates News Agency WAM) https://www.wam.ae ; ANI via The Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com ; Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com ; US Central Command https://www.centcom.mil
