SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran’s largest navy ship caught fire and later sank on Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman, but the entire crew was able to safely disembark, according to Iranian media.
“All efforts to save the vessel were unsuccessful and it sank,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. (local time) and firefighters tried to contain it, state TV reported.
The Kharg ship sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters reported that the vessel was on a training mission.
In April, Iran said one of its vessels, the Saviz, had been targeted in the Red Sea, after media reports the ship had been attacked with limpet mines.
It was the latest in a reported series of attacks on Israeli- and Iranian-owned cargo ships since late February in which the two arch-enemies accused each other of responsibility.
Last year, an Iranian warship accidentally struck another with a missile during an exercise, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others.
The incident took place during training in the Gulf of Oman, a sensitive waterway that connects to the Strait of Hormuz through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Iran regularly conducts exercises in the area.
