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Oil Soars As 2 Oil Tankers Explode In Persian Gulf, Iraq's Oil Ports Stop Operations

• https://www.zerohedge.com, by Tyler Durden

Lebanese terror group Hezbollah showered rockets and drones at northern Israel for hours, repeatedly sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis to shelters on Wednesday evening.

It marked the largest Hezbollah attack on Israel since hostilities intensified earlier this month, as the terror group began attacks to support its sponsor, Iran, which is under intense attack from a joint US-Israel air campaign that began on February 28.

An opening salvo of 100 rockets was launched around 8 p.m. as a missile from Iran targeted the central region of the country, in what Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said was a coordinated attack. More Iranian missiles targeted the north and south of the country.

This was followed by reports that two oil tankers have been hit by 'explosive boats' and were on fire in the Persian Gulf.

Two foreign tankers carrying Iraqi fuel oil have been subjected to unidentified attacks within Iraqi territorial waters, causing both vessels to catch fire, according to security sources cited by Baghdad Today and according to the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). The tankers are 

Tanker SAFESEA VISHNU, flying flag of Marshall Islands and chartered by one of Iraqi companies contracted with SOMO

Tanker ZEFYROS, flying flag of Malta and carrying condensate produced by Basra Gas Co.

The tankers - whose cargo was naphtha and condensate, both extremely flammable - were attacked while present in loading area.Tanker ZEFYROS was scheduled to head to Khor Al-Zubair Port on March 12 to load additional 30,000 tons shipment of naphtha. This incident negatively affects Iraq's security and economy and also represents a threat to safety of maritime navigation and oil activities within Iraqi territorial waters, SOMO says.