The attacks caused at least one big oil spill, in the Red Sea in October 2019, according to reports from Washington. Another spill, along the Israeli and Lebanese coasts in the past month, was blamed by Israeli politicians on a tanker carrying crude oil from Iran to Syria but will now be viewed in a different light. ... Flotilla 13 has now evolved into one of Israel’s most capable long-range special-forces units, conducting missions across the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of which are never publicised. Among the more significant incidents was an attack on the Sabiti, an Iranian tanker, in the Red Sea in October 2019. About 100,000 barrels of oil spilled from two holes blasted in the side. Last month, a limpet mine is said to have been attached to another, unnamed tanker off the coast of Lebanon. This is unlikely to have caused the oil spill that has washed tar along Israeli and Lebanese beaches since mid-February, since the prevailing currents would have taken the crude further north. Yet it will raise suspicions that the spill came from a similar, botched strike further south, or at least that the spill was a result of Iranian retaliation

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...riers-h3ngwknmh