BAGHDAD (AP) – An Iraqi explosives team is working to neutralize a “large” mine discovered on a Persian Gulf oil tanker and to evacuate its crew, authorities said on Friday.
The statement came a day after two private security companies said sailors feared they had found a ditch mine on MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in the waters of Iraq’s port of Basra. A bark mine is a type of naval mine that attaches to the side of a ship, usually by a member of a special forces diver. It then explodes and can significantly damage a ship.
The Iraqi statement said the mine was attached to a tanker leased from the Iraqi oil trading company SOMO, which was powering another ship. Iraq’s naval forces were making “a great effort to carry out the mission” safely, said the Iraqi security cell, which is affiliated with the country’s security forces.
It was the Iraqi’s first official confirmation that a mine had been discovered on an Iraqi oil tanker transferring fuel from the Persian Gulf to another ship. He did not identify the vessels or provide further details.
The discovery came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States in the declining days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
America has already flown B-52 bombs and sent a nuclear submarine into the Persian Gulf about what Trump officials describe as the possibility of an Iranian attack on the one-year anniversary of the US drone strike in Baghdad, which killed a general top Iranian and a top Iraqi militia leader.
Iraq marks the anniversary with a series of events this week.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, an organization under the British Royal Navy, said on its website that an “unknown object” had been attached to the hull of the ship near the Iraqi port of Khor Al-Zubair, without providing more information.
Pula serves as the floating fuel tank of the Iraqi State Petroleum Trade Organization, said Sudharsan Sarathy, a senior oil analyst at data analytics firm Refinitiv. Smaller ships transport fuel oil to the ship, which then makes transfers from ship to ship in the Persian Gulf to customers.
Sarathy said Pula is making a ship-to-ship transfer with MT Nordic Freedom, a Bermuda-flagged oil tanker.
Friday’s statement said an explosives handling team from Iraq’s Interior Ministry was airlifted to the scene after a “foreign body” was spotted attached to one of the ships in the waiting area in Iraq’s international waters. , 28 nautical miles from Iraqi oil ports.
Despite the high waves, the ship that received the fuel was evacuated while the Iraqi team was still working to neutralize the mine and evacuate the refueling ship, he said.
In 2019, the US blamed Iran for a series of carpet mine attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. Iran denies involvement.