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20 Thai sailors return home after vessel attacked in Gulf / Photo: © AFP
20 Thai sailors return home after vessel attacked in Gulf
Twenty Thai crew members of a cargo ship that was attacked in the crucial Strait of Hormuz arrived in Thailand on Monday, with three of their colleagues still stranded on the vessel in the Gulf.
The Thai-registered Mayuree Naree was hit by two projectiles on Wednesday while transiting through the Gulf waterway, after departing a port in the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had struck the Thai ship, as well as a Liberia-flagged vessel, in the strait because they had ignored "warnings".
The 20 sailors landed at Thailand's main international airport early Monday morning and were immediately escorted away by officials without speaking to gathered media.
The wife of one of the returned crew, who gave her name as Bass, told reporters she was still waiting to see her husband after the ordeal.
"We are all afraid, but they are employees -- if they refuse to go (out to sea), they won't get paid," the 32-year-old woman said.
"I don't know where they went or when they will return home. The company hasn't told me anything," she added.
The vessel's owner Precious Shipping said Monday that the firm would provide "welfare support for the crew, including medical examinations and mental health assessments", according to a statement.
Its "highest priority" remained the "continued efforts to locate the three crew members who are still missing", the firm added.
The company said last week that the three crew were "believed to be trapped in the engine room", which was damaged in the attack.
Thailand was seeking assistance for the three stranded crew from two other nations, foreign ministry deputy spokeswoman Maratee Andamo told reporters at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok.
The Omani navy rescued the 20 sailors on Wednesday, the Thai navy said last week.
Since strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran more than two weeks ago ignited the Middle East war, the Islamic republic has launched its own attacks against its oil-exporting neighbours.
The strikes have threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz -- through which about a fifth of global oil supplies usually pass -- and have plunged the global energy economy into crisis.
F. Tavares--JDB
