Thread by @Telegraph

🇮🇷Iranian-backed forces were suspected of seizing an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday.

It was just days after Iran was blamed for a drone attack on another tanker that killed a British crew member.

This is how the hijacking unfolded 🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

🚤It was late afternoon in the Gulf of Oman when the speedboat came alongside the red and blue painted hull of the MV Asphalt Princess.

Seven heavily armed individuals clambered up the side and ordered the crew to sail for Iranian waters.

🚢The crew initially struggled to make sense of their uninvited guests.

“We have Iranian people on board with ammunition, and we are drifting,” one confused crew member said in a call to Emirati coast guards

✖️The Asphalt Princess was not your typical target.

It is a minnow among the enormous super tankers that traverse the gulf daily, and it had no obvious connection to either of the antagonists

🚨This prompted speculation that the apparent hijacking was linked to a financial dispute or suspected fuel smuggling.

But with tensions already high, the incident set alarm bells ringing

⚠️The Royal Navy’s United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations quickly issued a warning to all shipping about a “non pirate” hijacking.

The Royal Oman Navy scrambled ships and helicopters, and the US Fifth Fleet dispatched the USS Mitscher, a guided missile destroyer, to investigate

🚢Back on the Asphalt Princess, the hijackers had a problem.

Quick thinking crew members had disabled the ship’s engine in a way that made it look irretrievably damaged.

The boarding party simply could not figure out a way to get it started again

🚤In the early hours of the morning, the gunmen clambered back over the side, and sped off into the night before the US destroyer arrived.

The UKTMO issued another statement: “Boarders have left the vessel. Vessel is safe. Incident complete”

🔴Diplomatically, however, the hijacking incident is still far from complete.

Read the full story 👇
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…