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.
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.
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 friendly-fire incident took place near the port of Jask, 790 miles south-east of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman.
A local hospital admitted 12 sailors and treated another three with light injuries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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