Iranian warship capsizes in ‘accident’ in Gulf port

An Iranian warship capsized during port repairs, killing two officers and injuring several others.

The Marine Sahand destroyer was in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz when it sank, state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency, citing a Navy statement, said: “While Sahand was being repaired at the dock, it lost its balance due to water ingress. Fortunately, the ship is balancing quickly.”

Sahand, named after a mountain in northern Iran, took six years to build and launched into the Persian Gulf in December 2018. The 1,300-ton ship was equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and radar evasion capabilities.

Its sinking is the latest misfortune to befall the Iranian Navy. In January 2018, a naval destroyer, Damavand, sank in the Caspian Sea after crashing into a breakwater. In June 2021, the largest ship in the Iranian navy at the time, the Khargsank after catching fire in the Gulf of Oman.

Although local media described the incident as an accident, some analysts say it could be the work of a Israeli cyber attack.

Vulnerable to hacks

Enmity between Israel and Iran has intensified since Israel declared war on Hamas in October, leading to an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and a wave of missile attacks by Tehran in retaliation.

Ronen Solomon, an Israeli security analyst, told The Telegraph that the ship’s system is vulnerable to hacks because it is controlled by remote devices.

He added: “We know because it was Iran that developed a cyber attack against Western cargo ships in 2021, including British ships, based on the same concept.”

This latest incident has what he said were “all the elements that could point to a sophisticated operation with adequate deniability space on both sides, Israel and Iran.”

One of the most high-profile hacks in Israel occurred in 2020 at the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaee.

This disorganized the port, causing disruptions at the port for several days. The US blamed Israel, saying it was retaliation for an attempted Iranian cyber attack on its port facilities.

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