Today’s satellite imagery suggests that the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) VLCC supertanker DOWNY (9218480) was attacked. She is in ballast and carrying no oil cargo. This is the type of vessel US CENTCOM typically targets in retaliation for Iranian attacks on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Satellite imagery shows a flurry of tugboat activity, corroborated by AIS movements that began at approximately 04:45 UTC this morning. The activity is concentrated around the port-quarter; which is the bottom-left corner of the vessel.

This suggests that the engine room was struck, most likely by a US Hellfire missile. There are no signs of fire or smoke on thermal imagery. The vessels do not appear to be conducting firefighting operations at the time of the image, although those efforts may have concluded before 07:21 UTC, when today's imagery was captured.

We also have sources reporting that NITC’s STARK1 (9171450) was struck off the coast of Kooh Mobarak, Iran overnight. She too is empty of cargo. A few days ago, NITC tankers SINOPA (9172038) and HAWK (9362061) were also struck off the port of Jask in the Gulf of Oman, though they appeared to contain some amount of oil cargo; which breaks the usual strike pattern.

#OOTT #IranWar #Tankers