Limpet mine may have damaged Greek tanker off Libya in latest unexplained attack, sources say

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LONDON/ATHENS - A limpet mine may have caused a blast that damaged a Greek tanker sailing off Libyas coast last week, the fifth such incident to hit commercial shipping in the region in recent months, maritime security sources said on Tuesday.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar with some 1 million barrels of oil when there was an explosion in the engine room, its Greece-based operator TMS said on Monday.

According to initial assessments, a limpet mine was a likely cause of the blast, four maritime security sources said.

A company representative with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that TMS was in no position to know what caused the blast until a full assessment of the damage was conducted once the vessel arrived in Greece later on Tuesday or on July 2.

The tankers last position was off Greeces southern coast, ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed on Tuesday.

The ships engine room was flooded due to the blast and the vessel lost maneuverability, although it was able to be towed towards Greece, TMS added in a statement on Monday.

The vessel had made two stops in recent months at the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga and Russias Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to MarineTraffic data.

Investigations into the suspected limpet mine attacks on tankers all link to recent port calls at Russian ports, indicating a targeted threat to vessels involved in Russian oil trade, likely driven by geopolitical tensions surrounding Western sanctions, British maritime cyber defence and risk intelligence company Dryad Global said in a