- An Iranian frigate capsized while undergoing repairs in Bandar Abbas, a coastal city in the Strait of Hormuz.
- State media reported that the craft took on water and lost its balance due to a “technical failure.”
- Photos show the ship lying on its side among merchant ships also moored in Bandar Abbas.
Several people were admitted to hospital after an Iranian warship sank in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Sunday, Iranian state media reported.
The Sahand, a domestically built Moudge-class frigate, was undergoing repairs when it lost its balance and partially sank, according to Mehr news agency.
The accident was caused by a “technical failure,” Mehr reported.
Several hours later, another report from the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the country’s military as saying that water had leaked into the Sahand’s tanks, causing the vessel to capsize.
The military added in an IRNA report that the ship had since “regained its balance.” Both news agencies are owned by the Iranian government, which described the ship as a “destroyer.”
Photos released by the agencies show the Sahand floating on its side next to several moored merchant ships. Other images on social media appear to show the ship capsizing.
The extent of the lasting damage to the ship was not immediately known.
The Sahand was launched in 2018 and is named after another Iranian ship destroyed by the United States during Operation Praying Mantis in 1988.
The original ship was one of two Iranian warships sunk by the U.S. Navy in retaliation for mining by the guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts.
According to Iranian media, the new Sahand is equipped with torpedoes, anti-aircraft munitions, cruise missiles, a point defense system and short-range weapons that can fire up to 7,000 rounds per minute.
Its sinking on Sunday is the latest in a series of incidents in the Iranian navy in recent years, including a friendly fire incident involving a similar-class vessel in 2020.
The Iranian frigate Jamaran was testing an anti-ship missile when it struck the support ship Konarak in the Gulf of Oman, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others.
In late 2021, another Moudge-class frigate, the Talayieh, was capsize filmed in a flooded dry dock in Bandar Abbas.
In June of the same year, the Kharg, one of Iran’s largest warships, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman after firefighters spent 20 hours trying to save it. It was on a training mission at the time, local media reported.
Another Moudge-class frigate, the Damavand, ran aground in 2018 and was damaged beyond repair. It had been launched three years earlier.
In a Sunday report covering the sinking of the Sahand, Iranian state TV channel Al-Alalam noted that the United States also suffered a sinking in 2022 involving a ship called the USS The Sullivans.
But the USS The Sullivans is a museum ship that served in World War II and the Korean War, and was decommissioned in 1965.
It nearly sank in April 2022 due to a hull breach, but was repaired and reopened for tours in August 2022.
