Syrian media reported an explosion and fire on a ship at the port in Latakia on Tuesday, with initial reports indicating that the affected vessel had been used to transfer Iranian oil to Syria in the past.
فيديو متداول للحريق الذي اندلع في عنبر إحدى السفن في ميناء #اللاذقية#تلفزيون_سوريا pic.twitter.com/nWOPNU8Wsg
— تلفزيون سوريا (@syr_television) August 10, 2021
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that firefighters extinguished a fire that broke out in a ship that was undergoing maintenance at the port.
Smoke from the fire caused some of the workers to suffer difficulty breathing. The ship was empty, according to SANA.
TankerTrackers.com, an online service that tracks and reports shipments and storage of crude oil, identified the vessel as the WISDOM, saying that the tanker had recently relocated in the port to make room for the Iranian oil tanker SAM 121.
The WISDOM has been used to transfer Iranian oil from Iranian tankers, including the SAM 121, to Syria in the past, according to TankerTrackers.com.
If this was the WISDOM, this isn't the first time the vessel has been affected by such an incident.
In April, initial reports claimed that the ship had been targeted by a drone attack, although Iranian and Syrian media later denied the reports, saying that a fire had been caused by a welding accident, killing one worker.
In May, the vessel was hit by another fire, after what SANA claimed was a technical failure in one of the engines.
The news comes as tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after an Iranian drone strike targeted an Israeli-managed Mercer Street ship off the coast of Oman in July, killing a British citizen and a Romanian citizen. The United States, the United Kingdom and Israel have all threatened retaliation and the attack has garnered international condemnation of Iran.
Iran has denied being responsible for the attack and claimed Israel and there US are attempting to destabilize the region, but on Saturday US Central Command (CENTCOM) released evidence that the drones used in the attack were Iranian-made.
Less than a week after the attack on the Mercer Street, Iranian forces reportedly attempted to hijack the Asphalt Princess tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, but fled the ship after workers sabotaged the engines, according to the British daily The Times.
On Monday, Iranian Nour News claimed that an Israeli submarine had secretly entered the Red Sea accompanied by two ships.
In recent years, Israel and Iran have reportedly targeted each other's maritime vessels on dozens of occasions.
In March, The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv reported that dozens of Iranian ships had been attacked by Israel throughout the Middle East, after The Wall Street Journal reported that a dozen Iranian oil tankers headed to Syria had been attacked by Israel.