[ad_1]
Last Updated: January 2, 2021 7:41 PM
Marine mine
The crisis of the tanker anchored off the Iraqi coast ended, two days after the discovery of a marine mine attached to the hull of a ship near a port in the southern city of Basra.
Security Media Cell said in a statement that “explosives control experts, in cooperation with naval forces, were able to dismantle the mine that was attached to one of the ships in the waiting area for ships in international waters.”
The cell’s statement added that the Iraqi authorities “have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident,” without giving further details.
The mine was discovered by chance on Thursday while sailors were transporting fuel oil from an Iraqi tanker in the Gulf to the “MT Paula”, a Liberian-flagged oil tanker owned by a US shipping company.
The accident occurred near the Iraqi port of Khor Al-Zubair, one of the most important Iraqi ports related to the export of oil to countries in the world, according to the British Maritime Trade Operations Authority, an organization affiliated with the British Royal Navy.
A sticky mine is a type of sea mine that is attached to the side of a ship, usually by a member of the Special Forces divers. The mine explodes later and can cause significant damage to the ship.
Western defense experts have linked the mine discovered on the oil tanker off the Iraqi coast to mines manufactured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and used by the Houthis.
Iraqi journalists published images of the newly discovered mine and similar ones previously published by Iranian media of an Iran-made mine, showing a complete match between the two mines.
The Iraqi Oil Marketing Company “SOMO” said on Saturday that the aforementioned tanker has been in the Al-Khitaf area, near Khor Al-Zubair, since the date of November 5.
During 2019, there were a series of similar mine strikes against tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran was accused of being behind.
And recently, the Saudi shores witnessed similar attacks on ships and tankers in the Red Sea, with Riyadh saying the Iranian-backed Houthis were behind them.
