Explosion Reported on Ship Docked in Syrian Port

Syrian media reported a major explosion and a fire on a civilian ship docked at Latakia Port on the country’s northwest coast on Tuesday afternoon.

Syrian state media reported that firefighters had the fire under control and that two people had suffered minor injuries in the incident. The SANA news agency quoted port director Amjad Suleiman saying that the ship had docked for maintenance work and was empty at the time of the blast.

Alarabiya journalist Ziad Halabi reported that the ship was an Iranian oil tanker that had docked in Latakia a few days ago.

The Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported that the explosion had caused a number of wounded and extensive damage to the vessel.

Thus far, there were no claims that the explosion or the fire had been the result of sabotage.