The ministry said it summoned US Deputy Chief of Mission Jason Meeks to lodge “a strong protest” over what it called continuing attacks by US naval forces on commercial vessels carrying Indian mariners.The attacks had resulted in the “tragic and avoidable loss of three Indian lives,” the ministry said in a statement.

Meeks was first summoned on Wednesday after a US strike hit the Palau-flagged tanker MT Settebello off the coast of Oman, killing three Indian crew members.The incident followed a June 8 strike on another Palau-flagged tanker, MT Marivex, from which Omani authorities rescued 24 Indian sailors.

On Thursday, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker was also hit in a US strike, according to Indian officials. New Delhi said the vessel’s crew, including 20 Indian sailors, were rescued.A US State Department official said Washington was in direct contact with the Indian government regarding the matter.

India is among the world’s largest sources of merchant seafarers, with more than 320,000 active sailors in 2025, according to the country’s shipping ministry.The shipping ministry has advised Indian sailors operating on Indian and foreign-flagged vessels travelling through conflict-affected waters to exercise the highest degree of caution.

“The continuing attacks on shipping in the region are deeply worrisome,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said, adding that such attacks must stop.India’s navy said on Thursday it had conducted a high-risk operation to remove an unexploded missile warhead from the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MT Olympic Life after it was struck off Oman on May 26.The vessel later reached India’s southern port of Kochi safely.

The navy said the projectile had entered the hull, passed through several structural compartments and became lodged inside a fuel tank.Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz have faced disruption since Iran restricted maritime traffic after attacks by the United States and Israel began on February 28. The United States has also imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.