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Iran says 19 dead in Gulf of Oman friendly-fire incident Iran says 19 dead in Gulf of Oman friendly-fire incident
(about 1 hour later)
The Konarak was helping set targets for warships when it was struck, according to state TV Support ship was hit by missile in another blow after Iran accidentally fired on Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 people
An Iranian missile fired during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman struck a support vessel near its target, killing 19 Iranian sailors and wounding 15, Iran’s state media reported on Monday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. Nineteen Iranian sailors have been killed and 15 injured, some severely, in a friendly fire incident involving two Iranian naval vessels, the country’s navy has admitted.
The statement significantly raised the death toll in Sunday’s incident from that reported hours earlier, when Iran’s state media said at least one sailor had been killed. A new anti-ship missile being tested by the frigate Jamaran on Sunday in the Gulf of Oman hit a support ship, Konarak, setting targets close to the contested Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies are sent.
The Konarak, a Hendijan-class support ship taking part in the exercise, was too close to a target during an exercise when the incident happened, the reports said. The vessel had been laying targets for other ships when it was struck accidentally, the report said The incident is another severe blow to the prestige of the Iranian military still recovering from its unintentional attack on a Ukrainian civilian aircraft departing Tehran on 8 January that killed all 176 people onboard.
The friendly-fire incident took place near the port of Jask, 790 miles south-east of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman. Security forces have also been accused of deliberately shooting hundreds of Iranians in November protesting over a petrol price rise.
A local hospital admitted 12 sailors and treated another three with light injuries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. A report on state TV said the Konarak was struck “after moving a practice target to its destination and not creating enough distance between itself and the target”.
Iranian media said the Konarak had been overhauled in 2018 and was able to launch missiles. The Dutch-made, 47 metre (155ft) vessel had been in service since 1988 and had capacity of 40 tons. It usually carries a crew of 20 sailors. The incident happened near the port of Jask, about 1,270km (790 miles) south-east of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman, state TV said.
Iran towed the Konarak into a nearby naval base after the strike. A photograph released by the army showed burn marks and some damage to the vessel, though the military did not immediately offer detailed photographs of the site of the missile’s impact. Iranian state sources quoting a local hospital spokesman initially said only one sailor had been killed, and two injured severely, but the number of deaths rapidly escalated later on Monday.
Iran regularly holds exercises in the region, which is close to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which monitors the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iran was relatively swift to admit the scale of the mistake, following criticism of the Revolutionary Guards, including by senior politicians up to the level of the president, Hassan Rouhani, for initially trying to cover up that its forces had fired on the Ukrainian jet.
Iranian media rarely report on mishaps during exercises, signalling the severity of the incident. The incident also comes after months of heightened tensions between Iran and the US since Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018 and imposed crushing sanctions on the country. The navy’s public relations department expressed its condolences to the families of the dead but also emphasised the defensive readiness and what it described as martyrdom-seeking spirit of the naval staff.
It was the second serious incident involving a misfired missile by Iran’s armed forces this year. After attacking US forces in Iraq with ballistic missiles in January in response to the US assassination of Gen Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, killing all 176 people on board. It is not known how the Konarak was hit but the Jamaran may have locked on to it as the closest and largest vessel it encountered when it turned on the radar for final target-acquisition of the Nour anti-ship missile. Alternatively, it could have been a targeting mistake from the Jamaran crew.
The still burning Konarak was towed into the nearby port of Chabahar, with photographs showing its superstructure including its command bridge completely destroyed. Pictures of the dead crew were also published, as well as messages of condolences from senior figures in the armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically important seaways and over the past year or so the number of military vessels has grown as nations either in alliances or separately have sought to protect their commercial shipping operating under their national flag.
The US president, Donald Trump, last month said he had ordered the US military to attack and destroy any Iranian vessel that harasses US navy ships. The order came one week after 11 small armed Revolutionary Guards speedboats swarmed around US navy and Coast Guard ships in international waters in the northern Gulf.
Tensions between Iran and the US have been rising ever since the US in 2018 pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, imposing sanctions on the country and seeking to prevent Iran from exporting its oil.
The US navy’s 5th Fleet, which monitors the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran is currently negotiating with the US over a major prisoner swap, which on Monday the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said had freed scientist Sirous Asgari, who was held in US, and at the same time moving to slowly relax controls introduced as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Latest government figures have shown a recent increase in the numbers newly infected after more than fortnight of lower deaths and infections.
The Iranian government has probably been forced to relax its physical distancing guidelines faster than it might like due to the scale of poverty in the country. A government spokesman said it had chosen a scenario that was intended to lead to fewer than 10,000 deaths.
A report issued on Sunday published by Mohammad Reza Yousefi, a professor of economics at Mofid University in Qom, showed 12 million working families did not have enough income, meaning nearly 45 million Iranians are in households in poverty.