Traces of burning and leakage near 3 Iranian ships after they were targeted in the Gulf of Oman news

Satellite images showed visual indicators of traces of burning and smoke, and a suspected oil leak near three ships in the Gulf of Oman, after the US Central Command announced the disruption of three Iranian ships that were heading to Iranian ports in the region.

The photo taken on May 9 shows three ships within one area in the Gulf of Oman. One of them appeared to have clear traces of burning on the surface of the water, while dark traces of smoke appeared near a second ship, and around a third ship there was a surface spot suspected to be the result of an oil leak.

Among the ships visible within the monitoring range, it was possible to identify a ship named “Karen 8”, after matching its location shown in the European satellite image “Sentinel-2” with its coordinates in the data of the ship tracking platform “Marine Traffic” at the time the image was taken.

A visual match with ship tracking platform data shows that the ship was in the Gulf of Oman, with an announced destination of the Iranian port of Jask.

Upon examination of the ship’s ownership register, it was found that the registered owner and commercial manager of it is a company based in the Cypriot city of Limassol.

On May 8, the US Central Command announced the disruption of two unloaded Iranian oil tankers, “Sea Star 3” and “Sevda,” before they entered an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman, and said that they were violating the American blockade.

The US Central Command added that a Super Hornet fighter, launched from the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush, disabled the two carriers after firing precision munitions at their smokestacks.

US Central Command also said that on May 6, its forces disabled a third Iranian oil tanker named “Hassan”, after it was heading to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman, noting that a “Super Hornet” fighter from the aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” disabled the tanker’s rudder by firing several shots from a 20 mm cannon.

The US Central Command says that the three ships are no longer sailing towards Iran, and that its forces disabled several commercial ships and changed the course of more than 50 other ships to ensure compliance with the blockade, while new satellite images confirm the presence of visual indicators of traces of leaks or smoke in an area witnessing increasing maritime escalation.

These developments come weeks after the US Central Command announced, on April 19, the interception of an Iranian cargo ship named “Tosca” in the northern Arabian Sea, and disabled its engine after warnings that lasted six hours, before US Marines boarded it, indicating that the blockade measures had moved from warning and changing course to directly disabling some ships.