Armed men with face covers had supposedly boarded the vessel St Nikolas, near the Omani harbor of Sohar, and ordered it to cruise to an Iranian harbor.

St Nikolas was traveling between the Iraqi harbor of Basra and its aimed towards Turkey.

On Thursday, UK Maritime Trade Operations announced that it had learned that four to five “unauthorised persons”, reportedly wearing “military style black uniforms with black masks”, had boarded the ship at 03:30 GMT.

They said that communications with the vessel had been misplaced, which the specialists were exploring.

Iranian state media cited the armed force as depicting the vessel as being American, but the tanker is Greek-owned.

The company that oversees it, Domain Route, said it was stacked with 145,000 tons of rough oil and was carrying 18 Filipinos and one Greek individual as a group.

St Nikolas was seized in April by the US beneath its past title, the Suez Rajan, under a portion of sanctions authorization against Iran.

Suez Rajan Limited, which once chartered the dispatch, afterward argued that it was blameworthy for planning to abuse sanctions by clandestinely offering and transporting oil overseas for the sake of Iran.

This most recent act shows up to be partitioned from assaults carried out by Houthi rebels from Yemen within the Ruddy Ocean on the inverse side of the Middle Eastern promontory.

Thursday’s occurrence was in a diverse sea from the Houthis’ normal range of operations, where they have been assaulting any ships they suspect of being connected to Israel in countering the country’s activities in Gaza.

The US and UK have indicated they might take military action against Yemen’s Houthi rebels after the biggest assault, however.

Carrier-based planes and warships shot down 21 drones and rockets propelled by a group backed by Iran on Tuesday night.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Wednesday requesting a quick conclusion to the Houthi assaults.