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Bulgarian officials reported that the attacks took place around 3 a.m. some 70 nautical miles east of the coastal town of Byala within the nation’s exclusive economic zone. The Togo-flagged general cargo vessel ALFA WATAN sank while the Palau-flagged ABLE caught fire after being hit by both aerial and maritime drones according to Prime Minister Rumen Radev. A search operation was immediately launched after a nearby Bulgarian ferry witnessed an explosion and found only overturned lifeboats rafts and jackets at the scene of the first strike Reuters reported.
The 18 crew members from the ABLE which was carrying wheat and heading south all evacuated successfully and were rescued by the Bulgarian ro-ro ferry Dioscuria a statement from the Bulgarian government detailed. Eleven of those rescued were Turkish nationals and seven were Indian with two suffering serious injuries including severe burns to an Indian sailor and a head injury to the Turkish captain Novinite.com reported. The injured pair were transferred by navy vessel to Varna for treatment at the Military Medical Academy while the remaining sailors were transported by border police patrol boats.
No survivors or bodies had been located from the ALFA WATAN whose northbound cargo remained unknown as the search continued with naval assets helicopters and a Su-25 aircraft participating Radev told reporters at an emergency meeting. Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov noted that weather conditions were favourable with visibility exceeding 10 nautical miles and waves at one to two degrees on the Douglas scale. The Bulgarian government identified the vessels as the ALFA WATAN with IMO number 7510884 and the ABLE with IMO 9001136 in an official release from the defence ministry’s Armymedia portal.
Radev convened senior defence interior and security officials within hours of the incident which POLITICO described as the first drone attack of its kind in Bulgarian waters. “This is an absolutely unacceptable attack within Bulgaria’s Exclusive Economic Zone a flagrant violation of international maritime law and maritime laws in general” the prime minister stated. He added that the crew of the ABLE had confirmed the involvement of both types of drones while Moscow has yet to comment on the events.
The strikes follow a similar episode off Romania the previous day in which a grain ship caught fire with two crew members killed an incident that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attributed to Russian forces according to Al Arabiya. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said both vessels had transmitted distress signals before the attacks a report from the firm indicated. Black Sea commercial shipping has come under increasing pressure from such incidents as spillover from Russia’s war in Ukraine grows a Reuters analysis found.
Several outlets including Türkiye Today identified the targeted ships as Turkish-owned adding to concerns over the safety of vessels with ties to NATO member states operating in the region. Radev emphasised during the emergency session that Bulgarian forces would continue searching the entire area for any possible survivors from the sunken ship. The prime minister further noted that the incidents underscored the expanding risks to civilian maritime traffic in the Black Sea amid the ongoing regional conflict.
