The merchant ship MV Chem Pluto, which was “attacked” by an Iranian drone and was headed towards India, was reached by the Indian Navy warship INS Mormugao on Saturday night, and information about the attack was obtained, officials said on Sunday. Officials say that the Indian Navy has started looking into whether the drone that attacked the ship was launched from a nearby vessel or at a distance.
A Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters that the motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker, was struck at approximately 10 am local time (6 am GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran.
Meanwhile, officials said the Indian Coast Guard ship Vikram was escorting MV Chem Pluto and both are expected to reach the Mumbai coast on Monday.
According to Indian Coast Guard officials, ICGS Vikram arrived at the troubled ship yesterday evening, and both are currently in Indian waters. The incident is the most recent example of the rising tensions in the region following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. This was the “seventh Iranian attack on commercial shipping since 2021,” according to the Pentagon. Twenty Indian and one Vietnamese crew members were on board the MV Chem Pluto when it was attacked by what appeared to be a drone on Saturday. The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) later secured it, the ICG said in a statement.
The merchant vessel reportedly commenced its voyage from the UAE on December 19 and was bound for New Mangalore port with an arrival date of December 25.
According to the official statement, on December 23, the Indian Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Mumbai received information regarding a fire onboard MV Chem Pluto, reportedly attacked by a suspected drone strike or aerial platform.