The United States believes a group of Iranians boarded the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, an apparent hijacking that occurred less than a week after Iran was blamed for a deadly drone attack on another ship. 

"We can confirm that personnel have left the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess, this commercial vessel that was seized yesterday. We believe that these personnel were Iranian, but we're not in a position to confirm this at this time,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that a “potential hijack” was underway off the coast of the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah region. The vessel was reportedly headed to the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which nearly a fifth of the world's oil passes. 

Oman’s Maritime Security Center said on Wednesday that it had received information about a “hijacking incident” in the Arabian Sea involving the Asphalt Princess and that the Omani navy had deployed several ships to help secure the area.