Two oil tankers caught fire in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq following explosions linked to a suspected Iranian attack, leaving at least one person dead. <\/p>\n
Explosive-laden boats believed to be from Iran struck the vessels on Wednesday, citing preliminary findings from an Iraqi-led investigation into the incident, News.Az<\/a> reports, citing The New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tankers may have been carrying up to 400,000 barrels of Iraqi oil, according to shipping monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.<\/p>\n Farhan al Fartousi, head of the Iraqi Ports Company, told CNN that 38 foreign crew members were rescued from the damaged ships following the explosions.<\/p>\n Footage of the fires show the flames spreading in the surrounding water, a sign oil is leaking from the massive tankers, which were anchored alongside each other prior to the attack, according to CNN.<\/p>\n The Maltese-flagged Zefyros and the Marshallese-flagged Safesea Vishnu were the targeted tankers, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n The registered owner of the Safesea Vishnu is US-based company Safesea Transport Inc., and the Zefyros is owned by a company in Greece.<\/p>\n Safesea Transport did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The reported attack took place within Iraq\u2019s territorial waters at the al Faw port, near the city of Basra, according to Al Jazeera.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oil prices skyrocketed this week amid supply-chain worries related to the Iran war.\u00a0<\/p>\n About a fifth of the world\u2019s oil passes near Iran through the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2013 about 600 miles south of Wednesday\u2019s suspected tanker attacks \u2013 on a typical day.<\/p>\n