Israel probing Iran's involvement in possible attack on cargo ship

Israel’s Defense officials were checking whether Iran was behind a possible attack on a cargo ship that is partially owned by Zionists, Israel’s N12 Television news reported. CSSAV Tyndall was on its way from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates when it was possibly hit by a projectile. In the aftermath, authorities confirmed that the attack did not cause any casualties or major damage to the vessel and it continued its journey.

Where is the vessel now?

Ship-tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon showed the CSAV Tyndall container ship, which sails under a Liberian flag, was last docked in Jeddah and was now off the coast of Dubai. Later, data by Veseelfinder revealed that the vessel arrived at Jebel Ali in the UAE on July 3 at 22:35 UTC. At the time of writing this article, the cargo ship is placed in the Persian Gulf.

According to N12, the Tyndall was owned by London based Zodiac Maritime Ltd. Later, Arab News, citing a source familiar with Zodiac Maritime's fleet, reported that the company had sold the CSAV Tyndall several months ago and that no such incident had taken place involving any of its vessels.

Israel and Iran have been trading accusations regarding maritime attacks. Last month, Iran's navy's largest vessel IRIS 'Kharg' 431  caught fire under 'mysterious circumstances' at around 2:25 am. After efforts failed to douse the flames and save the ship, it sank near the Iranian port of Jask, approximately 1,270 kilometres (790 miles) southeast of Tehran near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow maritime artery between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, Iran’s semiofficial news agencies Fars and Tasnim reported.

Kharg, named after Iran's primary oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf, was on a training mission.  Despite Iran’s best efforts to send military personnel and fire fighters that led 20 hours of all-out efforts and the use of maritime relief facilities, the rescue operation of Kharg training support vessel “was ineffective and the vessel sank,” as per Iran’s state-run broadcasts. 

Representative Image: AP