Iran: 19 killed in Gulf of Oman friendly-fire incident
An Iranian missile fired during a training exercise in the Gulf of Oman struck a support vessel near its target, killing 19 Iranian sailors and wounding 15, Iran’s state media reported on Monday, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
The statement significantly raised the death toll in Sunday’s incident from that reported hours earlier, when Iran’s state media said at least one sailor had been killed.
The Konarak, a Hendijan-class support ship taking part in the exercise, was too close to a target during an exercise when the incident happened, the reports said. The vessel had been laying targets for other ships when it was struck accidentally, the report said.
The friendly-fire incident took place near the port of Jask, 790 miles south-east of Tehran, in the Gulf of Oman.
A local hospital admitted 12 sailors and treated another three with light injuries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
