Ship-tracking service TankerTrackers and open-source intelligence researchers said videos released Sunday by Iranian state broadcaster Press TV and portrayed as a new oil tanker sinking in the Persian Gulf instead show two earlier strikes on the bulk carrier Cape Dao and the Kuwaiti supertanker Kazimah III.
Press TV aired footage Sunday that it said showed an oil tanker sinking after being struck for violating Iran’s maritime regulations. Researchers at OSINT613 and Live AIS identified the sinking vessel as the bulk carrier Cape Dao, which was hit Sept 23 while transiting the Strait of Hormuz and sank Oct 14.
TankerTrackers said a second clip circulated Sunday as a strike on a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker was filmed weeks ago in the Gulf of Oman and shows the Kuwaiti supertanker Kazimah III, which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck Oct 1 in the Strait of Hormuz. Port services extinguished an engine-room fire on the vessel after about two weeks of firefighting, leaving its 2 million barrels of crude oil cargo unaffected. The resurfaced clips followed Iranian military claims on Friday and Saturday that five tankers caught fire after hitting naval mines near the strait.
