BEIJING: Chinese firefighters spent on Thursday struggling to extinguish a blaze on a stricken oil tanker as criticism mounted in Iran if enough was being done to locate dozens of its missing crew members.
The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tons of light crude oil from Iran, has been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai on Saturday.
One body has been found but 31 sailors — mainly Iranians — remain missing with officials in Iran hoping they have found sanctuary on an unaffected part of the vessel.
Cleanup and rescue ships have faced toxic fumes, rain and windy conditions as they scrambled to find survivors and avoid a massive oil slick since Saturday’s incident.
China’s Transport Ministry said Thursday evening the Panamanian-flagged 274-meter tanker remained on fire, adding two ships had spent the day spraying the vessel with retardant foam.
But rescue efforts were still being hampered by “terrible” weather conditions and toxic gases from the burning oil which “pose a great danger to rescuers,” the ministry said in a statement.
Of the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on the Sanchi’s crew, only one body has so far been found and there has been no word from them since the collision.
Operated by Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), the vessel was taking light crude oil condensate to South Korea.
On Thursday the Iranian Merchant Mariners Syndicate, an industry NGO, said it had written to Chinese authorities expressing frustration at the lack of progress in putting out the fire.
“It was clear that the Chinese are not cooperating enough,” IMMS vice president Saman Rezaie, told AFP.
Iranian news website Khabar Online published video interviews with some of the relatives of those missing.
“I don’t know what else to say but just beg them to rescue them as I am sure that they are alive inside,” said one woman, who identified herself as the wife of the Sanchi’s chief engineer.
Other relatives said they thought the fire should have been extinguished by now.
An NITC spokesperson had previously suggested China might be more concerned with stopping a major oil leak in waters important to their fishing industry than rushing to save crew members.
The 21 Chinese crew member of the Crystal, which did not burst into flames, were all rescued.
Iranian criticism grows as China struggles to end tanker fire
Iranian criticism grows as China struggles to end tanker fire
Over 2,200 Daesh detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official
- Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists
BAGHDAD: Iraq has so far received 2,225 Daesh group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.
They are among up to 7,000 Daesh detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting Daesh had come to an end.
Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, told AFP on Saturday that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight Daesh.
He said they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”
A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the “continued transfer of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition,” using another name for Daesh.
On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.
- Iraq calls for repatriation -
Daesh seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.
Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offenses.
Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.
On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military’s operation.
In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said “the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist Daesh organization before the competent Iraqi courts.”
Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.
Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.
Maan noted that “the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed.”
