A civilian fishing vessel burns in the Gulf of Oman on Oct. 29, 2022. US Central Command officials said the vessel was found to be smuggling illicit cargo and was set on fire by its own crew as US forces approached. US Navy photo.
The latest battle between Middle Eastern drug traffickers and US warships nearly turned deadly after smugglers set their boat ablaze in the Gulf of Oman, according to US Central Command.
Sailors from the patrol coastal ship Sirocco rescued the eight mariners on Saturday, Oct. 29. CENTCOM officials said the civilians had abandoned their burning boat prior to it being boarded as a suspected drug-smuggling vessel.
While Sirocco’s crew provided medical care to the mariners, sister patrol coastal ships Chinook and Thunderbolt fought the fire.
“This was a superb effort by all of our crews,” US 5th Fleet Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said in a prepared statement released Sunday. “I couldn’t be prouder of everyone involved in saving lives while carrying out our mission to disrupt destabilizing maritime activity.”
Sailors on board the Cyclone-class patrol coastal ship Thunderbolt fight a fire sweeping a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Oct. 29, 2022. US officials said the vessel was smuggling narcotics and had be set ablaze by its own crew. US Navy photo.
The Iranian and Pakistani mariners confessed to trafficking a shipment of hashish and methamphetamine, according to CENTCOM. US sailors recovered 560 kilograms of hash with an estimated street value of $1 million. Officials believe the recovered narcotics composed only about a third of the cargo.
The rest of the narcotics burned or went down with the sinking boat.
CENTCOM reported that, after the sailors treated the mariners for their injuries, they transferred them to “a regional nation for additional treatment and repatriation.”
Reached in Bahrain, US 5th Fleet spokesperson Cmdr. Tim Hawkins declined to say which nation stepped up to take the suspected smugglers, telling Coffee or Die Magazine that it’s “up to the regional partner to disclose their support for this rescue. We will not speak for them.”
Sailors assigned to the Cyclone-class patrol coastal ship Sirocco rescue mariners from the water in the Gulf of Oman, Oct. 29, 2022. US officials say the mariners jumped into the water after setting their vessel on fire as US forces approached. US Navy photo.
No major media in the three nations bordering the Gulf of Oman — Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates — carried a story about the incident.
On Monday, however, Iranian officials announced the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps operating in the Persian Gulf had seized a vessel smuggling roughly 24,250 pounds of an undisclosed fuel worth $51.8 million.
“The criminal acts by fuel smugglers who plunder national assets in coordination with foreigners will not be hidden from the sight of Judiciary officials and officers, and the perpetrators of such crimes will be punished severely and without leniency,” Mojtaba Ghahremani, the director of Iran’s Justice Department in Hormozgan province, told Tehran’s official Press TV news agency.
Saturday’s US Navy rescue of eight people from a burning boat came only three days after the guided-missile destroyer Nitze and the patrol coast ship Monsoon saved three mariners after their motorboat caught fire in the Gulf of Aden, about 50 nautical miles off Yemen.
Read Next: Corrupt Chief Petty Officer Confesses to $2 Million Navy Scam
Carl Prine is a former senior editor at Coffee or Die Magazine. He has worked at Navy Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He served in the Marine Corps and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His awards include the Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on the military, a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life to save a reconnaissance team from almost certain death.
Ever wonder how much Jack Mandaville would f*ck sh*t up if he went back in time? The American Revolution didn't even see him coming.
A nearly 200-year-old West Point time capsule that at first appeared to yield little more than dust contains hidden treasure, the US Military Academy said.
Since the 1920s, a low-tech tabletop replica of an aircraft carrier’s flight deck has been an essential tool in coordinating air operations.
For nearly as long as the Army-Navy football rivalry, the academies’ hoofed mascots have stared each other down from the sidelines. Here are their stories.
Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel the weapon was produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details.
Ambushes make for great action scenes. Here are seven of the best to ever grace the big screen.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the launch occurred Wednesday but gave no further details, such as how far the missile flew.