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Iran's Largest Warship Sinks Under Unclear Circumstances
Published 3 years ago
Iran's largest warship caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman near the Iranian port of Jask. The location of the ship's sinking was about 790 miles southeast of the Iranian capital of Tehran.
On Wednesday, Iranian state and semi-official news agencies from the country of Iran reported that the Iranian vessel Kharg caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman. According to those same agencies the Kharg, named after an island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran, was a training vessel that caught fire around 2:25 AM local time.
On top of being a training vessel, the Kharg is also one of the only ships in the Iranian fleet that is capable of conducting replenishment at sea operations. Replenishment at sea, otherwise known as RAS, is a vital operation that allows Naval vessels to operate further abroad than they normally could. The ship was built in Britain, and launched in 1977. From there, it entered service into the Iranian Navy in 1984.
Video posted to semi-official Iranian news agencies shows the Kharg on fire as sailors evacuate the area. According to reports, the sailors attempted to extinguish the fires for several hours. This is the second naval incident the Iranian Navy has encountered in as many years. Last year in 2020, a missile mistakenly struck a naval vessel during a training operation near the port of Jask, killing 19 sailors and wounding another 15. The Iranian Government has yet to release an official reason as to how the Kharg's fire was started,