The US Navy has rescued five Iranian sailors injured in an explosion that erupted on their vessel and seized its cargo of illegal drugs, a statement said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“US Navy personnel rescued five mariners Dec. 15 after a fire caused an explosion aboard their vessel, which was smuggling illicit drugs while transiting the Gulf of Oman,” the US Naval Forces Central Command, or NAVCENT, said.<\/p>\n
“Sailors from Sirocco safely rescued five mariners injured in the explosion. One mariner remains missing.”<\/p>\n
Two of the five sailors, who identified themselves as Iranian, were immediately transported to Oman by helicopter for medical treatment, and the rest were later transported to Oman for repatriation.<\/p>\n
“Mariners were observed pouring liquid on cargo and the forward deck prior to the vessel catching fire and exploding,” US Navy spokesman Tim Hawkins said.<\/p>\n
The statement also said that Sirocco seized more than two tonnes of drugs worth $14.7 million.<\/p>\n
The haul included over 1,745 kilogrammes of hashish, 500 kilogrammes of methamphetamine and 30 kilogrammes of heroin.<\/p>\n
Sirocco is part of the Bahrain-based Combined Task Force 150, or CTF 150, which works under the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) naval partnership.<\/p>\n
CTF 150 said earlier this month that it seized more than 67 tonnes of drugs worth more than $189 million in operations in waters around the Gulf in 2021.<\/p>\n
The CMF includes 34 nations whose vessels patrol 3.2 million square miles of international waters. The New Zealand navy took command of CTF 150 in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US Navy has rescued five Iranian sailors injured in an explosion that erupted on their vessel and seized its cargo of illegal drugs, a statement said on Thursday. “US Navy personnel rescued five mariners Dec. 15 after a fire caused an explosion aboard their vessel, which was smuggling illicit drugs while transiting the Gulf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,897,1227,1738],"class_list":{"0":"post-233190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-blast","9":"tag-drug","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-us-navy"},"yoast_head":"\n