A large Iranian navy ship caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman today according to Iran's news sources. The circumstances of the accident are unclear.
The ship was called Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran. The fire began around 2:25am local time according to Iranian news sources. The vessel then sank near the port of Jask in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian Navy explained that the sinking of the training vessel was due to the large spread of the fire. The Navy confirmed that the crew of the ship had been evacuated, and there were no casualties.
Al Jazeera's Tehran correspondent Noureddine Al-Daghir said he had not yet known any information about the causes of the fire, and that authorities were investigating its circumstances.
Iranian media referred to the vessel as a training ship. The Kharg serves as one of a few vessels in the Iranian navy capable of providing replenishment at sea for its other ships. It also can lift heavy cargo and serve as a launch point for helicopters. The ship, built in the United Kingdom and launched in 1977, entered the Iranian navy in 1984 after lengthy negotiations that followed Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
