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A missile accidentally hit an Iranian warship during naval exercises, killing 19 sailors, according to official media and the Iranian army yesterday, when the tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States over the Gulf waters.
The accident, which occurred on Sunday, the ship “Kanark”, occurred near Bandar Jask, on the southern coast of Iran.
Iranian television reported that “the ship was hit after moving a training target to its designated location without leaving enough distance between it and the target.”
In addition, the armed forces announced in a statement that 19 crew members had died and 15 had been injured.
He explained that “Kanark” was subjected to an “accident” during the maneuvers, without providing further details. He added that the ship was towed to shore for “technical investigations,” and asked people to “avoid speculation” until new information is released.
And Tasnim reported in an English tweet that “Kanark” was hit by a missile fired by another Iranian warship. She said the ship came under “friendly fire after a Jamaican frigate accidentally fired a missile during live fire training in the Jask region in the Gulf waters.”
The director of the Sistan and Baluchestan Medical University, Muhammad Mahran Amin Fard, said the 15 patients had been transferred to a provincial hospital.
He told the semi-official student news agency ISNA that two sailors were transferred to the intensive care unit.
In two separate statements, the head of the Iranian army and the chancellor offered their condolences to the families of the sailors.
Trump’s threat
“Kanark” is reported to be a light logistical support ship manufactured in the Netherlands and purchased by Iran prior to the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Iranian television reported that it weighed 447 tons, was 47 meters long and was equipped with four cruise missiles. It was unclear how many crew members were on board when the accident occurred.
Over the past year, the United States and Iran have accused each other of a series of incidents involving their forces in Gulf waters.
The latest confrontation took place at sea between them on April 15, when the United States announced that Iranian ships “harassed” US Navy ships in the Gulf.
The order prompted the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to publish a tweet in which he said that he had ordered the United States Navy “to shoot all Iranian warships and destroy them if our ships were offended in the sea”.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded by saying that Washington should stop “conspiring” against Iran, adding that the Islamic Republic “has been protecting this waterway for thousands of years.”
Flight disaster
The accident occurred near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s oil production passes at sea.
And the tension that occurred last year between Iran and the United States witnessed attacks on ships, shooting down drones and confiscating oil tankers in the strait.
In July 2019, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized the British flag carrying the British flag Stina Impero for two months, accusing her of ignoring distress calls and stopping her transmitter after hitting a fishing boat.
Last year, the Revolutionary Guards detained at least six other ships on suspicion of smuggling oil.
Tensions have increased since 2018, when the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed severe sanctions on its economy.
The Iranian armed forces accidentally fired a missile in January, hitting a Ukrainian passenger plane, shortly after taking off from Tehran on its way to Kiev, killing 176 people on board.
The Iranian army admitted the catastrophic mistake, saying that the Iranian air defenses were on high alert, after launching a series of missiles at two bases that house US soldiers in Iraq.
At that time, Iran launched the missiles in response to the assassination of the leader of the Revolutionary Guard, General Qassim Soleimani, from an attack carried out by a drone a few days ago.
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