A missile fired during Iranian Navy drills in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday has struck a support vessel, killing 19 sailors and injuring 15 others, according to Iran’s navy.
State television described the friendly-fire incident as an accident, saying the Konarak, the support ship which had been putting targets in the water for other ships to fire on, had stayed too close. Media also reported that a local hospital admitted 12 sailors and treated another three with minor injuries.
Iran regularly performs military drills in the area, close to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. The United States Navy’s fleet that monitors the region, did not immediately comment on the event, which comes amid months of heightened tensions between Iran and the US.
In January, Iran’s armed forces accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing 176 people on board. The event followed a missile strike on a US military base in Iraq, in retaliation for a US drone strike killing the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qassem Soleimani.
Iran also said it would abandon the 2015 nuclear deal that it signed together with the US, France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China, but US president Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018.
