The deaths of three Indian seafarers in a US strike on a commercial oil tanker has prompted public fury in India, and added new friction to an already strained phase between New Delhi and Washington.
On Wednesday morning, the M/T Settebello was transiting the Sea of Oman, laden with Iranian oil, when a US aircraft fired precision munitions into its engine room –– causing a fire, sending smoke billowing into the air, and sparking a large rescue operation.
The three men found dead following the attack on the Palau-flagged vessel are the first seafarers confirmed to have been killed in a US strike as part of Washington’s operation to blockade Iranian ports, raising concerns in India that its nationals are becoming collateral damage in a war that isn’t their own.
The US miliary says the attack came after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with instructions from American forces enforcing the blockade.
New Delhi, which has become increasingly worried about the safety of its seafarers during the US-Israeli war with Iran, has now urged Washington to halt strikes on shipping vessels.
“The attacks that are happening must stop,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Thursday, after New Delhi summoned Washington’s Chargé d’Affaires.
The timing is particularly delicate, coming days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in France next week.
Modi, who has not commented publicly on the deaths, is coming under pressure from some unions to denounce the attack.
“When a foreign military kills Indian workers in international waters, the government of India must speak – loudly and firmly,” India’s Centre of Indian Trade Unions said in a statement Friday.
Indian political scientist Kanti Bajpai said the issue has “already become an irritant in a wobbling relationship” with the US.
Further incidents involving Indian casualties and “the venting of public outrage at home” could make it harder for Modi government to contain the issue, said Bajpai, a visiting senior fellow at India’s Centre for Social and Economic Progress.
Most of the 28 seafarers who were onboard the Setteballo were Indian nationals, according to India’s foreign ministry.
Just a day earlier, another 24 Indian sailors had to be rescued from another commercial oil tanker –– the M/T Marivex –– after it was also struck by US forces in the Gulf of Oman.
And on Thursday, US forces fired missiles into the engine room of a third tanker, the Guinea-Bissau flagged M/T Jalveer, for attempting to transport Iranian oil. It too was carrying Indian crew, who were reported safe.
The families of the three men killed are grappling with grief and seeking answers about their loved ones final moments.
“I have only one demand: that my son’s remains be brought back,” Rajesh Sharma, the father of one of the seafarers, told Indian news agency ANI. “I want to know what happened in his last moments. Was he given any rescue assistance? What circumstances led to the deaths of three crew members from our country?”
India is one of the largest suppliers of merchant marine labor, with more than 300,000 seafarers globally, according to Manoj Yadav, the general secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union (FSUI).
Many of them work on foreign-flagged vessels operating in the volatile region, leaving them particularly exposed when tensions escalate.
Yadav said the recent attacks had triggered “panic and fear” among Indian seafarers, many of whom have been stranded in the Gulf since the conflict began.
He questioned why the US forces needed to strike a commercial ship that carried no ammunition, saying they could “easily board the ship and detain the ship if they required.”
India’s opposition has framed the deaths as a test of Modi’s diplomatic leverage.
“The Prime Minister, who has repeatedly showcased his personal rapport with President Donald Trump as a diplomatic achievement, cannot evade responsibility when that relationship fails to protect Indian lives,” said the Indian National Congress in a statement.
India’s ports and shipping minister said the government “stands firmly with the bereaved.”
Over the past year, the once-robust ties between India and the US –– both members of the Quad security grouping –– have deteriorated as political and economic strains have begun to overshadow their strategic partnership.
Frictions intensified after US President Donald Trump publicly claimed to have mediated between India and Pakistan during a brief but deadly conflict last May — a claim New Delhi rejected — reviving sensitivities over third-party involvement in New Delhi and Islamabad’s dispute over Kashmir.
Tensions were further compounded by steep US tariffs on many Indian exports.
Adding to the friction, political scientist Bajpai said, has been Washington’s “burgeoning relations with Pakistan,” India’s key rival. Trump has repeatedly praised Pakistan’s defense chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has emerged as a key interlocutor in negotiations between the US and Iran.
Washington has recently tried to repair ties with Delhi by appointing an ambassador to India and with a visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month.
But India may now be looking for another gesture from the US, as it tries to contain the pressure at home over the deaths of the seafarers.
“Some public expression of regret from the US would be helpful,” Bajpai said. “India has four so-called foundation military agreements with the US, and it may have to remind the American side that it takes two to uphold the spirit of those agreements.”
No matter what happens at a political level, the families of the victims are left to pick up the pieces.
Ramji Chaurasiya, another father of one of the killed seamen, told ANI he had spoken to his son just a day before the attack.
“He said everything was alright,” Chaurasiya said, before breaking down into tears.
