The Washington Post reported that the fire erupted “under unclear circumstances” around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters battled it for 20 hours before the nearly 680-foot Kharg sank. The ship was used to resupply other ships, conduct training exercises, and had been in use for more than four decades.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
The vessel left for training at sea several days ago. It caught fire for some reason when a “system” failed on board. The Kharg suffered devastating damage despite Iran’s best efforts to send military personnel to fight the fire. It comes a day after an Iranian aircraft crashed and two elite pilots died. … This appears to be a major setback for Iran. Iran has recently tried to increase its naval footprint, acquiring new ships and sending ships to the Red Sea and to Venezuela.
The news comes as the Biden administration is in talks with Iran, which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to reenter the highly controversial Iran nuclear deal.
The news also comes after Israel was repeatedly attacked by Palestinian terrorists last month who launched more than 4,300 rockets at Israel. One of the terrorist organizations in Gaza publicly thanked Iran for supplying it with the weapons that it used to attack Israel.
Some analysts cautioned that the ship may have not been attacked and that Iran had a long history of naval disasters, including accidentally shooting their own ships.
Following last month’s ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organizations, numerous explosions and fires erupted at Iranian petrochemical plants.
“One person was killed and two others were injured in an explosion and fire at a petrochemical plant in Asaluyeh in southern Iran along the coast of the Persian Gulf … in the third such incident in the past four days,” The Jerusalem Post reported last week. “Earlier this week incidents were reported at petrochemical plants at the Kangan Petro Refining Co. (KPRC) and in Shahin Shahr.”
An attack last month believed to have come from Israel crippled Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility so badly that the facility might not be able to continue enriching uranium until next year.
“Two intelligence officials briefed on the damage said it had been caused by a large explosion that completely destroyed the independent — and heavily protected — internal power system that supplies the underground centrifuges that enrich uranium,” The New York Times reported last month. “The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a classified Israeli operation, said that the explosion had dealt a severe blow to Iran’s ability to enrich uranium and that it could take at least nine months to restore Natanz’s production.”
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