Two Indian nationals were killed in a drone strike in the northern region of Oman, officials confirmed late on Friday. With this, the total number of Indians killed directly due to the war in Iran has gone up to five.
“A security source has reported that two unmanned aerial vehicles crashed in the Wilayat of Sohar. One of the drones struck Al Awhi Industrial Zone, resulting in the fatalities of two expatriate workers and causing several additional injuries,” Oman’s state-run news agency reported on Friday.
Oman’s Sohar region is home to the country’s second-largest port.
India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, late on Friday, confirmed that the two workers were Indians.
In a post on social media platform X, he said: “We lost two Indian nationals today in an attack in Sohar, Oman in the ongoing conflict in West Asia. Several other Indian nationals were also injured,” he said, adding that the Indian Mission in Oman was in touch with local authorities and the employer.
Ten other Indians were injured in the attack, five of whom were still in a hospital, said Aseem Mahajan, additional secretary for the Gulf region at the Ministry of External Affairs. He said that none of the injuries were critical.
At least three other Indians have died in the conflict so far.
One man was killed in an attack on the US-owned oil tanker Safesea Vishnu. In the briefing to reporters, Mahajan said efforts were underway to bring his remains back to India.
Two other seafaring Indians have been killed in similar attacks on ships in the region.
