Oil slick from bombed Iranian ship threatens protected wetland

Shahid Bagheri leaking fuel towards Hara mangrove forest, home to migrating birds and endangered turtles

• Middle East crisis – live updates

An oil slick from a stricken Iranian ship threatens to contaminate one of the Middle East’s most important wetlands, satellite image analysis suggests, making it one of a number of spills posing a risk to the livelihoods of coastal communities in the Gulf.

The Shahid Bagheri, a drone carrier, began leaking heavy fuel oil in Iranian territorial waters near the strait of Hormuz after it was hit by a US warplane in the first few days of the US-Israel attack on Iran.