Iranian warship “Sahand” capsizes after accident in dock

An Iranian warship capsized during repairs in port, resulting in the deaths of two officers and injuries to several others.

State media reported that the navy destroyer Sahand sank in the southern port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.

The official IRNA news agency quoted a navy statement as saying: “When the Sahand was being repaired at the quay, it lost its balance due to water entering. Fortunately, the ship is being quickly rebalanced.”

The Sahand, named after a mountain in northern Iran, took six years to build and was launched in the Persian Gulf in December 2018. The Sahand warship is part of Iran’s Southern Fleet. In 2021, the United States made significant efforts to prevent the ship from docking anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, sparking controversy.

The ship was suspected of carrying weapons on its way to Venezuela. It eventually changed course and headed for the west coast of Africa. The 1,300-ton ship was equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft batteries and modern radar systems designed to evade radars.

The Sahand was preparing for an anti-piracy operation in the Indian Ocean when it was anchored in the harbor and was plagued by flooding.

Most recently, the Sahand was deployed in response to ongoing attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis proxy organization in the Red Sea. It led a small fleet of Iranian ships in the region in attacks on Western and Israeli vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

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