Reuters verified images from the shore at Basra showing two tankers wrapped in orange fireballs that lit up the night sky. Iraqi authorities said explosive-laden Iranian boats hit the vessels overnight in Iraqi waters. At least one crew member died.
The ships were the Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu and the Zefyros, both of which had loaded fuel cargoes in Iraq, two Iraqi port officials told Reuters. A port security source said the Zefyros flew the Maltese flag. A boat from the Iraqi Ports Company pulled 25 crew members off the two ships while both were still burning.
“We recovered the body of a foreign crew member from the water,” one port security official said. Rescue teams kept looking for missing seafarers.
An Indian sailor among the dead
India’s embassy in Baghdad said an Indian crew member died aboard a US-owned crude tanker attacked near Basra. The other 15 Indian crew of the Safesea Vishnu were moved to a safe location, it said in a post on X.
Farhan al-Fartousi, director general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, told Iraq’s state news agency that oil ports had halted all operations since the attacks, though commercial ports kept working. Officials described the strike as sabotage. Al Jazeera’s Baghdad correspondent, Mahmoud Abdelwahed, relayed their view: “Iraqi officials say this is a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty given the fact this act, they say, of sabotage has happened in Iraq’s territorial waters.”
The technical detail worth noting is the weapon. Reuters said reports of explosive-laden unmanned surface vessels matched a tactic Ukraine has used heavily against Russia. Iran has blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, and about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes that way. Reuters also cited two unnamed sources who said Iran had laid about a dozen mines there, while President Donald Trump said US forces had hit 28 Iranian mine-laying vessels.
Other ships hit
Hours earlier, other vessels were struck in the Gulf. The Thai bulk carrier Mayuree Naree took two projectiles of unknown origin while passing through the strait, starting a fire and damaging its engine room. Operator Precious Shipping said three crew were missing and believed trapped there, and that the other 20 were ashore in Oman. The Revolutionary Guard Corps said its fighters fired on the ship.
A projectile also hit a container ship 35 nautical miles north of Jebel Ali, causing a small fire. The Japan-flagged ONE Majesty and the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Star Gwyneth were both damaged while at anchor, and their crews were safe.
The US Navy has turned down near-daily shipping industry requests for escorts through the strait, sources told Reuters, because the risk of attack is too high for now.
Sources
- Oil tankers burn as Iran's new leader vows to keep Strait of Hormuz closed
- Six vessels attacked amid reports of Iranian drone boats, sea mines
