When the US and Israel began striking Iran in February, bringing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to a grinding halt, Rex Pereira was one of tens of thousands of sailors thrust into the centre of a conflict that engulfed the entire Middle East.
Pereira is one of the lucky ones – he’s speaking to The Independent having made it back to the safety of his home in Mumbai, after being trapped for weeks on board a vessel near Basra in southern Iraq. But he still gets flashbacks of missiles crashing into the sea so close by that he could feel the entire ship shaking beneath his feet.
