Two oil tankers ablaze in Persian Gulf after suspected attack - VIDEO
Two oil tankers caught fire in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq following explosions linked to a suspected Iranian attack, leaving at least one person dead.
Explosive-laden boats believed to be from Iran struck the vessels on Wednesday, citing preliminary findings from an Iraqi-led investigation into the incident, News.Az reports, citing The New York Post.
The tankers may have been carrying up to 400,000 barrels of Iraqi oil, according to shipping monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
Farhan al Fartousi, head of the Iraqi Ports Company, told CNN that 38 foreign crew members were rescued from the damaged ships following the explosions.
Footage of the fires show the flames spreading in the surrounding water, a sign oil is leaking from the massive tankers, which were anchored alongside each other prior to the attack, according to CNN.
The Maltese-flagged Zefyros and the Marshallese-flagged Safesea Vishnu were the targeted tankers, the outlet reported.
The registered owner of the Safesea Vishnu is US-based company Safesea Transport Inc., and the Zefyros is owned by a company in Greece.
Safesea Transport did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The reported attack took place within Iraq’s territorial waters at the al Faw port, near the city of Basra, according to Al Jazeera.
Oil prices skyrocketed this week amid supply-chain worries related to the Iran war.
About a fifth of the world’s oil passes near Iran through the Strait of Hormuz – about 600 miles south of Wednesday’s suspected tanker attacks – on a typical day.
By Nijat Babayev
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