Four ships hit in Hormuz, off Bulgaria

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — A tanker and a container ship were hit by projectiles of unknown origin in the Strait of Hormuz, the British maritime agency UKMTO said on Tuesday, as Iran keeps up its blockade of the strategic waterway in place since the start of the Middle East war.

An investigation is underway, the agency said, without specifying whether the attacks caused any damage or casualties.

Since the beginning of the war, triggered in late February by US and Israeli strikes against Tehran, Iran has claimed control of the strait and regularly targets ships that try to transit it without its permission.

Washington, in response, has imposed its own naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Meanwhilel, in Varna, Bulgaria, suspected Russian drones struck two cargo ships on Tuesday, sinking one vessel and leaving 11 sailors missing in the latest spillover from the Ukraine war in the Black Sea.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev summoned the Russian ambassador after drones struck a Ukrainian-owned cargo ship, the Chelsea 3, while another vessel was also hit and sank further north off the coast of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union member.

Radev said the Chelsea 3 was “hit by three aerial drones,” and shortly afterwards another ship was “struck” and sank.

“We lack solid, clear evidence to level accusations against any specific party; however... logic suggests the outcome works to the advantage of the Russian Federation,” he wrote, calling the attack “unacceptable.”

The Bulgarian presidency later identified the sunken ship as the HS Dignity, a Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo vessel, and said it went down 17 nautical miles east of the town of Krapets.

“According to information we got from the rescue center... five people were rescued and 11 are missing. This is preliminary information,” a spokesperson for the northeastern region of Dobrich told Agence France-Presse.

The ship was travelling between Algeria and the Romanian port of Braila with a crew of Syrian and Egyptian nationals, according to the Bulgarian interior ministry.