The fire against the Syrian oil tanker has been extinguished following the alleged attack following the Syrian War News

Firefighters extinguished the fire at an oil tanker in front of the Syrian Banias refinery after an alleged attack by a drone heading towards Lebanese waters.

The identity of the ship was not clear when Iran’s Tasnim news agency denied that it was an Iranian ship. TankerTrackers said in a tweet that “the tanker that was seen burning on the coast of Banias today is not an Iranian vessel,” but is registered in Beirut.

The tanker that was seen burning on the coast of Baniias today is not an Iranian vessel, but a tanker called WISDOM registered by BEIRUT. ARMAN has assisted the VLCC Irish supertanker (formerly ADRIAN DARYA-1) by unloading 300-350K barrels at a time due to depth restrictions. #OOTT pic.twitter.com/tv6lH38IHq

– TankerTrackers.com, Inc.⚓️???? (@TankerTrackers) April 24, 2021

Possible drone attack

The Syrian state news agency SANA, which cited a document from the oil ministry on Sunday, did not provide further details about what it said was a drone attack.

He said the fire was “caused by an attack by a drone from the direction of Lebanese waters”.

Iranian Arabic television Al-Alam has said it has suffered damage to an Iranian cistern, but has not claimed any casualties. But Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing “several sources,” said: “The accident happened to another ship … and is not linked to a ship carrying Iranian cargo.”

According to a war monitor, at least three people were killed in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) in Britain.

The attack that ignited “killed at least three Syrians, including two crew members,” said SOHR chief Rami Abdel Rahman without giving details.

Al-Mayad’s pro-Damascus television said it was suspected of being hit by a drone from an Israeli oil tanker. The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident.

Citing U.S. and Middle Eastern officials in a report released last month, the Wall Street Journal said Israel had directed at least a dozen ships bound for Syria, most of them carrying Iranian oil, by the end of 2019.

Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes have also hit Syria since the start of the war in 2011, mostly aimed at allies in government and the Syrian Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and Syrian forces.

Earlier last year, Damascus said divers had planted explosives at the sea pipelines at the Banias refinery, but the damage did not stop operations.

And in February 2020, armed drones attacked four oil and gas sites in Homs province, causing fires and causing property damage.

Natanz attack

Saturday’s attack killed a Syrian officer and wounded three soldiers on Thursday in Israeli attacks after a missile was fired at a secret nuclear site in Israel.

The Israeli army then said the surface-to-air missile was fired from Syria into the southern Negev desert, where the Dimona nuclear reactor is located.

The exchange of fire came just two weeks after Iran denounced “terrorism” as a result of an explosion at a nuclear facility in Natanz.

Israel is considered the main military power in the region, and is well known for its unique nuclear arsenal.

It has never unveiled its atomic arsenal, but foreign experts say it has between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads.

Fuel shortage

According to industry experts, there is a refinery in the Syrian town of Banias, along with another in Homs, that covers a large part of the country’s demand for diesel, heating fuel, petrol and other petroleum products.

The war-torn country has experienced a shortage of gasoline and fuel over the past year, with supplies supplied to government areas and rising prices.

Syria has been more dependent on Iranian oil shipments in recent years, but the tightening of sanctions on Western Iran, Syria and their allies, and the foreign currency crisis have made it difficult to get enough supplies.

Pre-war production was 400,000 barrels (bpd) a day in Syria.

But in 2020 the Syrian oil minister said it was only 89,000 bpd, of which 80,000 bpd came from Kurdish areas outside government control.