India's shipping ministry says an Indian-flagged wooden cargo vessel has sunk in Omani waters after a fire caused by a suspected drone or missile strike, in the first vessel loss in this corridor that this feed has not previously covered [1].

The dhow was hit in the early hours of Wednesday while sailing from Somalia to the United Arab Emirates with a cargo of livestock. The fire that followed eventually sank her. All 14 crew were rescued by the Omani coast guard and taken to Diba port, the ministry said [1].

India did not specify the nature of the attack or attribute it to anyone. British maritime risk group Vanguard described a suspected explosion believed to have been caused by a drone or missile strike, so the cause remains an assessment rather than a confirmed attribution [1].

The report describes the dhow as the second vessel sunk in the region since the Iran conflict began on 28 February, and says the war has left hundreds of ships stranded and 20,000 seafarers unable to leave the Strait of Hormuz waterway leading into the Gulf of Oman [1]. That stranded-crew figure is far larger than anything previously carried here and is worth watching as the IMO's paused evacuation effort remains unresolved.

This is a small, unarmed wooden trader rather than a tanker, and no casualties are reported, but it shows attacks are still reaching non-military, third-country shipping in the approaches to the strait days after the US strikes on Iranian tankers.