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Errant Missile Strike During Iranian Naval Exercises Kills 19

Iran Says 19 Killed, 15 Injured in Naval Exercise Incident

(Bloomberg) -- Nineteen people were killed and 15 injured in a “misguided missile attack” on an Iranian support ship as the country’s navy carried out drills in the Gulf of Oman, the military and state media said.

The Konarak was hit near the port of Jask on Iran’s southern coastline on Sunday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said, citing a statement from the navy. Jask is east of the Strait of Hormuz and the site of a major oil and gas terminal project.

The incident will refocus attention on the military four months after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mistakenly shot down a civilian Ukrainian airliner as it climbed in airspace above Tehran, killing 176 people on board.

The vessel has been towed to shore for further investigation, the army said on its news portal aja.ir. It was built in the 1980s and joined the navy in October 2018, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. It’s also used for patrolling and equipped to launch cruise missiles.

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