Iran's largest navy ship sank after catching fire in the Gulf of Oman, state media says

• Iran's largest navy ship sank after it caught fire in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian media reported.
• Iranian state TV said a fire started early Wednesday during a training mission in the port of Jask.
• No reason for the fire was given, but the crew was reported safe.

Iran's largest navy ship, the 680-foot fleet replenishment oiler Kharg, sank in the Gulf of Oman after catching fire but not before its crew was safely rescued, Iranian media reported.

Iran's Tasnim News Agency, citing the Iranian navy, said that this military vessel was in international waters for a training mission when "one of its systems" caught fire.

Iranian state TV said the fire started around 2:25 a.m. on Wednesday as it was on a training mission in Iran's port of Jask, Reuters reported. The port is located to the southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.

Military and civilian crews battled the blaze for hours, Tasnim reported, noting that efforts "to extinguish the fire were futile."

In a similar vein, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that "all efforts to save the vessel were unsuccessful and it sank," according to Reuters. The Iranian media outlet released a video of the burning ship on social media.

ABC News, citing state media, reported that the 400 crew members on board were forced to flee the ship. Twenty people were reportedly injured.

The Kharg, Iran's largest naval vessel by tonnage and one of a very limited number of replenishment ships in the Iranian navy, was built in the UK ain the late 1970s and had been in service for roughly four decades before it was lost Wednesday.

Iranian officials have given no reason for why the fire started, but the incident is reportedly under investigation.

The sinking of the Kharg on Wednesday is the latest in a string of several naval disasters experienced by the Iranian navy over the past few years, not including a number of suspicious attacks at sea.

For instance, last year, the Iranian guided-missile frigate accidentally fired a missile at one of its own ships, the support ship Konarak, killing 19 sailors and injuring a number of others. And two years prior, in 2018, an Iranian destroyer sank. Two crew members died in that incident.