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Syria on Thursday called on the International Maritime Organization and Bulgarian authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the sinking of a cargo ship in the Black Sea, whose 10 crew members, including nine Syrians, remain missing.
The probe should examine why search-and-rescue (SAR) operations stopped before the crew's fate was determined, said Mazen Aloush, director for international relations at the Syrian General Authority for Ports and Customs.
The Togo-flagged Alfa Watan sank after a drone strike on Tuesday in Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone, one of a growing number of attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea linked to the Russia-Ukraine war.
"The ship's crew was composed of 10 sailors, nine of them Syrians and one Egyptian," Aloush told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that "their fate is still unknown."
The authority said it had sent urgent notes to the IMO and Bulgarian maritime authorities seeking an independent and transparent probe, an explanation for halting the search and an underwater inspection of the wreckage.
"The failure to find survivors after search and rescue operations were halted does not mean their deaths are confirmed," the authority said, urging that the case not be closed before all avenues are exhausted.
Bulgaria said Wednesday it had ended the search. "There is no trace of the sailors," said Rumen Nikolov, head of Bulgaria's Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center, adding the operation "will not be resumed."
"What was found from the sunken ship was one overturned boat, three life rafts and debris from the ship's equipment that was floating on the surface of the sea," Nikolov said.
Nikolov had earlier said an estimated 12 crew members were aboard, all Syrian nationals.
It remains unclear who carried out the attack. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the nature of the cargo and the ships' direction of travel could point to Russia but that Sofia had no evidence to directly attribute responsibility.
Russia's embassy in Sofia said the vessel was not among targets hit by Russian drones.
A second ship, the Palau-flagged Able, caught fire in the same attack, and 18 Turkish and Indian crew members were rescued. Both vessels were managed by Türkiye-based companies, according to the Equasis shipping database.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Thursday that Russia and Ukraine are each pressing "a tremendous offensive" before winter to gain military superiority.
"This is seriously affecting navigation safety in the Black Sea. We see that Turkish-flagged, Turkish-owned and Turkish-crewed ships in particular are also affected by this," Fidan said at a news conference in Ankara.
"We are doing our best to stop this," he added.
"As countries of the region and as the international community, we must never allow the Black Sea to turn into a new front of conflict," he said.
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