At least three young men on an oil tanker were killed in alleged Israeli drone strikes off the coastal city of Baniyas on April 24, 2021 according to local sources.
A tweet from @SAMSyria0 reported that “the body of the young man, Ahmed Amin, from Arwad Island – Tartous, who is a crew member of the targeted ship, has been found. The search is still going on for the victims: the young man, Ahmed Mohammed, from the village of Balgons – Baniyas and the young Muhammad Hussein Yassin – Aleppo.”
A later tweet from @SAMSyria0 adds that “the young Ahmed Wafiq Muhammad, 18 years old, from the village of Balgons – Banias Tartous” has been identified as being killed on the oil tanker.
A Facebook post from Samaher Nasif added that Muhammad Hussein Yassin – Aleppo was also killed on the oil tanker.
Tik Debka reported that “other sources are clears that in the attack 4 of the crew of the tanker were killed, three of them Syrians.”
According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, there was “an explosion in an oil tanker coming from Iran, near the oil refinery in the coastal city of Banias.” At the time of their reporting, “it was not known whether the explosion was caused by a drone attack or naval attack on an oil tank within the tanker. The explosion caused fire and material damage, but no casualties have been reported.” SOHR later added that three Syrian people had died in the “burning of a fuel tank inside the Iranian oil tanker,” adding that “it is not known whether they are among the cadres working within the tanker.”
“The director of the observatory, Rami Abdel-Rahman, told Agence France-Presse, “At least three people were killed, two of them were crew members” in the attack, which caused a fire in one of the tanker’s tanks.”
Multiple sources, including the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, alleged that the explosion was caused by a drone coming from Lebanese territorial waters but that the identify of the belligerent responsible was unknown.
According to a tweet from @NorsForStudies citing Russia Today, Moscow claimed that the tanker was not targeted and that the fire that broke out was due to negligence; Iran denied that the tanker belonged to them and identified it as being Lebanese; and the Syrian regime identified the tanker as being Iranian and blamed Israel for the strike.
@OQBAH33 attributed a drone strike to Israel and identified the tanker as belonging to Iran. A tweet from @IntelliTimes reported that Israel denied any connection to the attack on the tanker.
France 24 reported that according to Iranian media, the oil tanker was “one of three Iranian tankers that arrived shortly before at the Syrian oil port of Banias.” However, other sources contested whether the tanker was Iranian, with Reuters quoting TankerTrackers, who said in a tweet that “the tanker seen burning today off the coast of Baniyas is not an Iranian vessel”, but Beirut-registered and the semi-official news agency Tasnim denied it was Iranian.
CNN included details that “The “Al-Ahlam” channel quoted unidentified sources as saying that the tanker was targeted “with two projectiles, one of which hit the front of it, leaving partial damage, and the other hit its roof and caused more damage.”
The Israeli military declined to comment on the incident. @obretix geolocated this incident.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
