A US-flagged tanker berthed in the Port of Bahrain caught fire on Monday after being struck by at least two projectiles related to the fighting between the US, Israel and Iran.
Workers onboard the vessel Stena Imperative were unharmed by the attack that happened around 2am local time (5am GMT), but one shipyard worker was killed and two others were injured, according to the ship's owner Stena Bulk and the ship's manager US transportation firm Crowley. The fire was extinguished.
This is the first known US-flagged vessel to be attacked and struck in the region since the start of the US and Israeli conflict with Iran. The attack comes after three other vessels in the Mideast Gulf were hit — the 11,000 deadweight tonne (dwt) oil product tanker Skylight, the 74,000 dwt crude oil tanker Mkd Vyom and the 47,000 dwt clean/chemical tanker Sea La Donna.
The Stena Imperative is part of the US' Tanker Security Program, a fleet of 10 US-registered product tankers that are used to supply armed forces with fuel. At the start of February, armed boat crews unsuccessfully tried to interdict the Stena Imperative in the strait of Hormuz.
