TEHRAN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called for investigations into a recent deadly incident during army's naval exercises in the Sea of Oman south of Iran, state TV reported.
In a message to Chief Commander of Iran's Army Abdolrahim Mousavi on Tuesday, Khamenei extended his condolences over the "painful and regrettable" incident.
Khamenei urged Iranian authorities to "properly" investigate into the incident, identify those potentially at fault, and take necessary measures to avoid such incidents in the future.
On Saturday evening, 19 Iranian navy servicemen were killed after an incident happened to the Iranian Army's Konarak logistic vessel in the country's waters near the southern port of Jask in the Sea of Oman.
In the incident, which happened during naval drills of army, 15 other servicemen were injured.
Some unofficial local media reports said that Konarak was targeted "accidentally" in the navy drills.
On Tuesday, a funeral ceremony was held in the southern port city of Chabahar for the deceased servicemen.
Iran's army said in a statement that Konarak vessel has been towed to the Iranian port for further technical investigations.
Mousavi said Tuesday that four expert groups from Iran's Armed Forces, Defense Ministry, Iran's Army and Navy have been dispatched to the site of incident to investigate the cause. Enditem
