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.

With Iran still under heavy bombardment, no one has been able to begin cleaning up the spill and the oil has travelled slowly westwards towards the Hara biosphere reserve, the largest mangrove forest on the Gulf shoreline.

The Shahid Bagheri, described as “one of the most conceptually significant vessels” in Iran’s navy, is a container ship modified to include a short runway for launching drones. Its fuel load was likely to have been significant: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had a range of 22,000 nautical miles and could go a year between refuelling.