One Crew Member Dies in Missile Attack on Tanker Velos Sapphire in the Gulf

The tanker Velos Sapphire, flying the Marshall Islands flag, was struck by a suspected missile approximately 50 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar, while sailing in ballast bound for Bahrain. The explosion sparked a fire on board that the crew managed to extinguish, and one crew member was initially reported missing.

The Greek ship management company Velos Tankers later confirmed that the missing crew member was found dead on board after sustaining fatal injuries in the explosion. The company stated that no other crew members were injured and that no pollutant spills were recorded. The vessel was taken to Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain, where an investigation will be launched to determine the extent of the hull damage.

According to a report from UK Maritime Trade Operations, two unidentified projectiles struck an unnamed tanker at 23:20 UTC, before the operator confirmed an explosion on the port quarter, attributed to an unidentified missile. The Velos Sapphire, a 74,998 deadweight-ton product tanker built in 2007, had departed Fujairah on November 3 bound for Sitra, Bahrain. AIS data analysis showed that its speed dropped to 2.4 knots shortly before the attack and to around 1.1 knots afterward, before it regained speed and continued sailing toward Bahrain.

The attack adds to growing concern over the expansion of attacks on merchant vessels beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, through its Persian Gulf Strait Authority, updated its list of vessels sanctioned for failing to meet its transit requirements, which now totals 239 ships, up from 77 recorded in September, after removing two gas carriers sanctioned by Washington and adding a Panama-flagged chemical tanker. The Joint Maritime Information Center rated the threat level in the area as severe and recorded commercial traffic reduced to just nine crossings per day, compared to a pre-conflict average of around 85.

Figures from the International Maritime Organization put the number of confirmed maritime incidents in the region since the start of the conflict at 129, with 24 crew members killed. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Oman and Iran held talks on Thursday on practical and technical arrangements to restore unimpeded navigation through the strait, though no reopening agreement has been announced.