An attack on two oil tankers off the coast of Iraq resulted in the death of a sailor, Iraqi authorities said early this morning, as they continued to search for “missing persons”.
Iraqi state television station Al-Ikhbariya broadcast footage showing a ship at sea from which flames and thick smoke billowed, off southern Iraq, within Iraqi territorial waters. The French News Agency notes that it was unable to immediately independently verify this footage.
This attack was recorded on the 13thday of the war in the Middle East, which erupted when the US and Israel attacked Iran, Iraq’s neighbour and ally, on 28February.
A text in a banner carried alongside the network referred to the “death of a crew member” on one of the two ships, citing the director of the Iraqi Ports Authority, Farhan al-Fartusi.
Ikhbariya also said 38 sailors had been rescued and that searches were “continuing” to identify “missing persons.”
The incident occurred somewhere around 30 nautical miles (nearly 100 kilometers) off the coast, according to the director.
Initially the official had reported an “explosion” and an attack on only one ship.
Iraqi security services reported an act of “sabotage”, according to the official Iraqi news agency INA.
One of the two vessels is flying the Maltese flag, according to Mr Fartusi.
The two vessels were “attacked” while in a side-loading area, according to a statement from the Iraqi public oil marketing company SOMO.
The Maltese-flagged ship — called the Zefyros, according to information released by Iraqi authorities — was preparing to dock at Hor al-Zubeir to load 30.000 tonnes of naphtha (a product used mainly by the petrochemical industry) after unloading a previous cargo.
The second ship, the Safesea Vishnu Marshall, flying the Marshall Islands flag, is chartered by an Iraqi company.
Asked about it by French News Agency, a worker at the port of Basra said he was unable to say whether it was an attack by air or sea drones, at a time when the US is accusing Iran of mining Gulf waters and the Strait of Hormuz to cripple the global oil market.
Today’s attack comes hours after the US embassy in Baghdad issued a new warning of possible attacks by Iran or its allies against “US-owned oil and energy infrastructure” in Iranian territory.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry, for its part, called for “the security of navigation in international maritime corridors and energy supply routes (….) be guarded against regional conflicts.”
Tehran signalled earlier this week that it has no intention of “allowing a single litre of oil to be exported from the region to the enemy camp and its partners until further notice”.
