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<\/a><\/p>\nTwo oil tankers have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman, leaving one ablaze and the other adrift, a month after a similar incident in which four tankers in the region were struck.<\/span><\/p>\n The US navy\u2019s fifth fleet said it was assisting the tankers, which issued distress calls near the strategic strait of Hormuz. The crew from both tankers were evacuated.<\/span><\/p>\n Reports of the explosions originally came from the same Hezbollah-linked news agencies in Lebanon that correctly reported attacks on tankers docked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. The US blamed those attacks on Iran \u2013 an accusation Tehran has denied.<\/span><\/p>\n The suspected attacks occurred along one of the world\u2019s busiest oil routes, and the price of oil surged<\/strong><\/span><\/a> as the initial reports emerged on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n Front Altair was carrying 75,000 tonnes of naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, when it suffered a suspected torpedo hit, according to Taiwan\u2019s state oil refiner CPC, which chartered the vessel. Other unverified reports suggested a mine attack.<\/span><\/p>\n The vessel was on fire but afloat, said its operator Frontline, denying a report by the Iranian news agency IRNA that it had sunk.<\/span><\/p>\n The Kokuka Courageous was damaged in a suspected attack that breached the hull above the waterline while en route from Saudi Arabia to Singapore, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said. \u201cThe ship is safely afloat,\u201d it added<\/span><\/p>\n Iranian state TV reported 44 crew had been evacuated from the tankers to an Iranian port.<\/span><\/p>\n United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which is part of the Royal Navy, said it was investigating. \u201cWe are deeply concerned by reports of explosions and fires on vessels in the strait of Hormuz. We are in contact with local authorities and partners in the region,\u201d said a UK government spokeswoman.<\/span><\/p>\n Tensions in the Gulf have been close to boiling point for weeks as the US puts \u201cmaximum economic pressure\u201d on Iran in an attempt to force <\/a>Tehran to reopen talks<\/a><\/strong><\/span> about the 2015 nuclear deal, which the US pulled out of last year.<\/span><\/p>\n The timing of Thursday\u2019s attack was especially sensitive because it came as the Japanese prime minister, Shinz\u014d Abe, held talks with the Iranian leadership in Tehran in an effort to find a basis for discussions between the US and Iran<\/a>. The Japanese stressed they were not bringing specific messages from the US president, Donald Trump, and said nothing that they had heard in the first day of talks suggested a breakthrough was imminent.<\/span><\/p>\n Japan\u2019s trade ministry said the two oil tankers involved in Thursday\u2019s incidents carried \u201cJapan-related\u201d cargo.<\/span><\/p>\n The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, described Thursday\u2019s developments as \u201csuspicious\u201d and implied that the fault lay with a person or group trying to damage his country.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSuspicious doesn\u2019t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning,\u201d he tweeted, adding that the incidents took place while Abe was meeting Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, \u201cfor extensive and friendly talks\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n