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'Flurry of missiles': Indian sailors risk work at sea as Middle East war grinds on

Indian sailor Sunil Pooniya survived a missile strike on the oil tanker Skylight near the Strait of Hormuz, an attack that killed two colleagues. As tensions in the region escalate, thousands of seafarers remain stranded, and the human cost of the conflict is becoming clearer.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 outlets · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage May 24–25, 2026 Published Aug 15

Lead

When a missile struck the oil tanker Skylight in the early hours of 1 March, Sunil Pooniya was asleep in his cabin on his first job at sea. The 26-year-old Indian sailor woke to find the ship engulfed in chaos, with smoke spreading and flames approaching. He and other crew members jumped into the sea to escape.

Pooniya, who had boarded the Palau-flagged vessel in Dubai with a friend, recounted the ordeal in interviews with the BBC and Dawn. The attack killed two fellow Indians — Dalip Singh and Ashish Kumar Singh — the first Indians killed in the conflict, according to Dawn.

The Skylight was the first commercial vessel to be struck after the US-Israel war with Iran erupted in the region, BBC reported. The US-sanctioned ship had been travelling from Dubai and was nearing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.

Coverage Comparison

BBC World and Dawn both covered Pooniya's experience, highlighting the risks faced by merchant sailors in the region. BBC focused on the ship's ownership and insurance status, as well as the response of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to the crisis. Dawn, a Pakistani English-language daily, framed the story as a human-interest narrative, emphasizing the poverty that drives many Indians to take such dangerous jobs.

Both outlets quoted Pooniya's firsthand account. "There was a huge noise and the whole ship shook," he told Dawn. "I thought something had gone wrong with the engine, but a missile had hit us." He described the chaos: "The whole ship was up in flames." Everyone jumped into the sea wearing life jackets. "I screamed for Dalip, but he was gone in the fire," he said.

BBC reported that Dalip Rathore, 25, had joined the Skylight the day after Sunil. They discovered they were from neighbouring villages in Rajasthan and became close friends. After the attack, Sunil recalled: "As soon as I realised Dalip wasn't there, that's when it hit me. I started panicking. I kept thinking: how will I answer to his family?"

The Oman Navy launched a rescue operation within an hour and pulled survivors from the water, but not everyone could be accounted for.

Key Claims

Sunil Pooniya, 26, was on his first job at sea when a missile struck the oil tanker Skylight near the Strait of Hormuz on 1 March. He escaped by jumping into the sea.
The attack killed two Indian sailors, Dalip Singh and Ashish Kumar Singh, as reported by Dawn. BBC identified one of the victims as Dalip Rathore, 25.
India is one of the largest contributors of sailors to the global merchant shipping industry, with more than 320,000 active seafarers in 2025, according to the country's shipping ministry.
Eleven merchant sailors have been killed in the conflict, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). At least four were Indian, Dawn reported.
Iran has restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — which normally carries about one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG shipments — since the United States and Israel launched attacks on 28 February, Dawn reported.
The US has imposed its own naval blockade on Iranian ports, according to Dawn.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has received more than 2,000 calls for help from people on commercial ships trapped in and near the Strait of Hormuz, BBC reported.
The Skylight was sanctioned by the US in December last year for transporting Iranian oil and lost its insurance, as reported by BBC.

Perspectives

Seafarer safety advocates

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has been responding to the crisis, having received more than 2,000 calls for help from seafarers on commercial ships trapped in and near the Strait of Hormuz, according to BBC.

Indian seafarers

Indian sailors, who are among the largest contributors to the global merchant fleet, face heightened risks in the region. Dawn reported that India's sailors are among the highest merchant maritime casualties from the Middle East war, with thousands of Indians among the estimated 20,000 seafarers stranded by the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

How each outlet told it

BBC — World as of May 24, 2026, 1:30 AM UTC

Framing: Investigative story on the ship's ownership and insurance — Investigative and informative, with a sympathetic tone towards the seafarers

Facts Included:

Sunil Puniya's experience on the Skylight
The attack on the ship killed two fellow Indians
The ship's ownership and insurance status
The response of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to the crisis
The experiences of other seafarers stuck in the region

Read the source article →

Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

Framing: Human interest story of Sunil Pooniya's experience — Sympathetic and informative

Facts Included:

Sunil Pooniya's experience on the MV Skylight
The attack on the ship killed two fellow Indians
India is one of the largest contributors of sailors on merchant shipping worldwide
Eleven merchant sailors have been killed in the conflict
The US has imposed its own naval blockade on Iranian ports
Thousands of Indians are among the estimated 20,000 seafarers stranded by the Strait of Hormuz blockade

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimSunil Pooniya's experience on the MV Skylight involved a deadly attack driven by the US-Israel war on Iran, where he had to dive into the ocean to escape.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe attack on the ship killed two fellow Indians, Dalip Singh and Ashish Kumar Singh.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimIndia is one of the largest contributors of sailors on merchant shipping worldwide.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimEleven merchant sailors have been killed in the conflict.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC
ClaimThe US has imposed its own naval blockade on Iranian ports.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC
ClaimThousands of Indians are among the estimated 20,000 seafarers stranded by the Strait of Hormuz blockade.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Dawn as of May 25, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has received more than 2,000 calls for help from people on commercial ships trapped in and near the Strait of Hormuz.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via BBC — World as of May 24, 2026, 1:30 AM UTC
ClaimSkylight was sanctioned by the US in December last year for transporting Iranian oil and lost its insurance.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via BBC — World as of May 24, 2026, 1:30 AM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 outlets · 2 articles consulted: BBC — World, Dawn 8 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-15