India has lodged a fresh protest with the United States over naval strikes on commercial vessels carrying Indian crew members, summoning US charge d'affaires Jason Meeks for the second time this week.
The move came a day after New Delhi said three Indian crew members of a tanker had been killed in the US action off the coast of Oman.
Officials said Meeks was conveyed India's "strong protest" over the strikes. He had also been summoned on Wednesday night.
India on Thursday said three merchant ships with Indian crew members came under attack from American military off the coast of Oman this week, resulting in the death of three nationals.
It was New Delhi's first public acknowledgement that the US Navy targeted the three ships with Indian crew members. New Delhi asserted that these attacks must stop.
A Palau-flagged oil tanker, Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers, was disabled by US forces on June 8. All crew members were safely rescued.
On June 10, the US struck another Palau-flagged tanker, Settebello, killing three out of the 24 Indian sailors on board. Another vessel, Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker with 20 Indians, was attacked on Thursday.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday that the three separate strikes on the Settebello, Marivex, and Jalveer "came from the US Navy".
Jaiswal said two of the three vessels were subject to sanctions administered by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), while another had been classified as non-compliant.
The OFAC is the financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department, and it acts against vessels involved in violating US sanctions on the sale of Iranian and Russian oil.
(With inputs from PTI)
