A ship owned by Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s largest container shipping firm, was struck by two projectiles in an Iraqi port, the Geneva-based company said.
The cargo ship, the Sariska V, was hit as it left the Port of Umm Qasr in Iraq on Monday. All crew members were safe and unharmed, the company said on Tuesday.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it acted in response to U.S. strikes on an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial news outlet affiliated with the Guards. The Revolutionary Guards reportedly said the vessel was owned by the “American-Zionist enemy.”
U.S. forces disabled a vessel, the Lian Star, on Friday as it was attempting to sail toward an Iranian port from the Gulf of Oman, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. A U.S. aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of the Lian Star after the vessel’s crew failed to comply with warnings that it was in violation of the U.S. blockade. “The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” the statement said.
Attacks continue in the region even as the United States and Iran attempt to negotiate to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas moved before the start of the conflict in Iran on Feb. 28. As part of the U.S. blockade against Iran, the U.S. Central Command has disabled five commercial vessels and redirected 121 as of Monday.
More than 25 vessels have been attacked in the region since late February, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.
Mediterranean Shipping Company, or MSC, said in a statement that Iran’s actions were unwarranted and that “MSC is a neutral commercial carrier with no affiliation to the United States or Israel.” The company added that it was privately held and owned by the children of Gianluigi Aponte, who founded the company in 1970. The Sariska V was headed to Qatar’s Hamad Port south of Doha, according to MarineTraffic, a maritime data company.
“MSC is deeply concerned by these unprovoked attacks and the risk they create for its innocent seafarers, and essential maritime trade in the region,” the company said. MSC has a fleet of 1,000 vessels and employs 200,000 people worldwide.
Shirin Hakim contributed reporting from New York.
