Six decades on, MV Dara’s bombing off Dubai remains an enduring horror

The MV Dara, a 120-meter, 5,000-ton ship was a familiar sight in Dubai and around the Gulf. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 09 April 2021
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Six decades on, MV Dara’s bombing off Dubai remains an enduring horror

  • A suitcase bomb explosion aboard the vessel off Dubai killed 238 people, most of them Arabs, Indians and Pakistanis
  • British investigators later concluded that an anti-tank mine caused the blast that destroyed the passenger ship

LONDON: During the night of April 8, 1961, 11-year-old Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the future ruler of Dubai, was awoken by the sound of a ferocious storm battering the royal palace.

As a child, he had heard the elders of his grandfather’s generation recall phenomenal storms of such savagery that they likened them to the Day of Judgement.

But, as Sheikh Mohammed wrote in his autobiography “My Story” in 2019, “I didn’t pay much heed to their prophetic, doom-laden words.”

That is until that April night in 1961 when “I found my bed in the middle of a full-blown storm, with windows slamming in the gale-force winds that were blowing through our family home … It seemed like the world was ending all around me, what some other cultures call the end of days.”

It was, he wrote, “the beginning of a seemingly endless night,” during which large numbers of his father’s subjects, many of them injured and rendered homeless by the storm, sought sanctuary at the palace.

Outside, Sheikh Mohammed recalled, “there was heavy destruction, with palm trees flying through the air like toys, many houses damaged or utterly destroyed, and fishing boats tossed into the streets of the city. Many families suffered death or injury that night.”

And then, just when it seemed that things could not get any worse, they did. Out on the storm-swept sea, dozens were losing their lives — not to nature’s fury, but at the hands of a ruthless human killer.

Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Rashid had organized men to go out into the streets to help where they could, and to help staff at Al-Maktoum Hospital cope with the waves of injured who were pouring in.

And then, recalled Sheikh Mohammed, “arrived news that froze my father where he stood. British soldiers rushed past the door, scarcely catching their breath. They shouted, ‘Your Highness! There’s a fire on the Dara!’ The world seemed to stand still.”

The MV Dara, a 120-meter, 5,000-ton ship was a familiar sight in Dubai and around the Gulf. Owned by the British India Steam Navigation Co., it was one of four similar ships that for the past decade or more had provided a regular service for cargo and passengers to and from Bombay (now Mumbai) via ports around the Gulf.




The Dara was one of four similar ships that for the past decade or more had provided a regular service for cargo and passengers to and from Bombay, now Mumbai. (File Photo)

The Dara had left Mumbai on March 23 and, after calling at Karachi, Muscat, Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait, Khorramshahr, Abadan and Basra, had returned to Dubai on April 7. On board were around 560 passengers and 132 crew.

The ship was anchored off the creek, with small boats ferrying passengers and cargo to and from the shore, when in the afternoon the weather began to deteriorate rapidly.

At about 5:30 p.m., after the Dara was clipped by a nearby cargo ship that had dragged its anchor in the rising seas, Capt. Charles Elson made the decision to put out to sea and ride out the storm in the relative safety of open water.

It was a fateful decision for the approximately 128 dock workers, officials, tradesmen and friends of passengers who had come aboard in Dubai and were unable to disembark before the ship sailed away to weather the storm. In all, about 820 souls were on board that night.




The Dara had left Mumbai on March 23 and, after calling at Karachi, Muscat, Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait, Khorramshahr, Abadan and Basra, had returned to Dubai on April 7, 1961. (File Photo)

After the storm began to ease at about 4 a.m. the next morning, the Dara started its return to Dubai. She never made it.

Forty-three minutes later, a terrific explosion in an alleyway on the portside upper deck shook the ship.

“This explosion was of considerable violence,” reported the official inquiry into the tragedy, carried out in London in March and April 1962.

“It blew a semi-circular hole about 6ft wide and 4ft high in the engine-room casing, which separated the engine room from this alleyway; a rather larger hole was blown in the bulkhead on the port side; in the deck above there was a hole about 4ft in diameter ... fire immediately broke out, there was heavy smoke; all electric power was cut off, the steering gear was put out of action and the pipes in the vicinity of the explosion were ruptured.”

Many passengers and even crew panicked, crowding into lifeboats “with a considerable quantity of luggage” even before the call came to abandon ship. Of the six lifeboats launched, two capsized with loss of life.

In “My Story,” Sheikh Mohammed painted a vivid picture of the horror that unfolded as nearby ships, Dubai fishermen and others rushed to the Dara’s aid.

“More than 800 passengers were on board the sinking ship,” he wrote. “The soldiers said that many were killed immediately, but more passengers were dying every minute as they crowded to escape — some crushed to death, others drowning in the raging waters.”

(Then) arrived news that froze my father where he stood. British soldiers rushed past the door, scarcely catching their breath. They shouted, ‘Your Highness! There’s a fire on the Dara!’ The world seemed to stand still.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum

Overloaded lifeboats “were capsizing in the middle of the sea and the strong winds were scattering the boats in all directions.”

At the palace, “we gathered our relatives and a large number of Dubai residents in our home. My father sent all our family, without exception, with lifeboats to try to save anyone they could. We were able to rescue about 500 people that night — a night I thought would never end; one of horror, violence and terrible human tragedy.”

The crippled, burnt-out Dara stayed afloat for two more days before finally capsizing and sinking as she was towed back to Dubai. Today, she lies on her side about 8 km offshore.




The Dubai Voluntary Diving Team has worked with the Department of Tourism and Archaeology in Umm Al Qaiwain over ten months to complete phase one of the excavation of the ship, Dara, by cleaning debris from the location where the ship sank. (Emirates News Agency)

In interviews with this writer a decade ago, survivors and relatives of those who had been on the ship told of the horror of that night.

John Soares, then a 23-year-old deputy purser from Goa, recalled being thrown by the blast from his cabin bunk on the main deck. “I found total confusion on the deck,” he said. “I could see a gaping hole with fire coming out of it.”

Even as he tried to get passengers to put on lifejackets, many leapt into the rough seas without them.

“They were not listening to anybody, they were in a world of their own,” he said. “It was terrible, total panic.”

Decades after the tragedy, he remained haunted by the events of that night — the sight of many of those who jumped breaking their necks upon impact with the water, and the horror of witnessing mothers desperate to save their babies from the flames engulfing the ship, instead throwing them to certain death in the sea.

Many people in the region remain affected by the tragedy. Raja Qaiser of Islamabad, born 12 years after the sinking, recalled how his family still mourned its “lost children” — the four sisters Latifa, 17, Shoib, 7, Jamela, 5 and Hafeza, 3 months — who died on the ship with their mother Maqsood.

As a child, Qaiser would often hear his father Raja, who was not on the ship and who died in 1987 aged 70, speaking of his lost children. Until the end of his life, “he believed they had survived. He would not let anyone cry.”




After the storm began to ease at about 4 a.m. the next morning, the Dara started its return to Dubai. She never made it. (File Photo)

After the tragedy, which affected so many families around the Gulf, the hunt began for what caused the blast.

In 1957, Britain had intervened in an increasingly bitter war between the sultan of Oman and rebel tribespeople. The conflict reached a turning point in 1959 when British special forces and RAF bombers delivered a series of decisive blows against the rebels, in what became known as the Jebel Akhdar War.

The uprising had been crushed, but for a while insurgents continued to plant landmines in Oman, hitting military and civilian vehicles.

In 1962, a special court convened in Britain under the terms of the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act considered the evidence for 15 days and concluded that an explosive — probably a landmine — had been “practically certainly, deliberately placed in the vessel by a person or persons unknown.”

Sir John Hobson, the solicitor general, told the inquiry that the explosion had been a “deliberate and wicked act” of sabotage, the work of Omani rebels.

The explosion, reported the inquiry, had caused “an instantaneous fire which spread with extreme rapidity.”

The deaths had resulted “partly from the explosion itself and partly from the extremely rapid spread of the fire, which asphyxiated an unknown number of persons and prevented the launching of the majority of the lifeboats.”

Evidence was given to the inquiry by British Royal Navy divers who had been sent down to examine the wreck of the Dara.

They had concluded that “there seemed little doubt that the explosion was caused by a high-explosive of approximately the type and quantity used in an anti-tank mine ... detonated deliberately, probably by a detonator with a time device.”

No group claimed responsibility for the blast and no one was ever charged with having carried it out, but numerous suspects were arrested and interrogated by the British.

Sir John de Silva, first secretary of the British Political Residency in Bahrain, told the inquiry that a prominent member of the rebel group had “admitted that the explosion had been caused by his colleagues.”

The unofficial conclusion reached was that the bomb had been intended to go off at Muscat in Oman, the Dara’s next scheduled port of call.

Hidden in a suitcase, the explosives may have been smuggled on board at Dubai by an insurgent or insurgents who had traveled overland to the port from Oman.

In a final twist of fate brought about by a storm of the type likened by the elders of Dubai to the Day of Judgement, the bomber may have been trapped on board when the Dara’s skipper raised anchor and sailed into open water to weather the storm. And, quite possibly, he was among the dead.

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Twitter: @JonathanGornall


Israel says it downed Yemen-fired missile claimed by Houthis

Updated 3 sec ago
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Israel says it downed Yemen-fired missile claimed by Houthis

  • The insurgents have carried out dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel since the Gaza war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack
  • The Houthis have also repeatedly targeted merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Friday it shot down a missile launched from Yemen, an attack claimed by the Arabian Peninsula country’s Iran-backed Houthi militantss.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted” before entering Israeli territory, the military said.
The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, said they targeted an air base “east of the occupied area of Haifa” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile.”
The insurgents have carried out dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel since the Gaza war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
They are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, presenting themselves as defenders of Palestinians in Gaza.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that the group’s “support operations will continue until the aggression against Gaza ceases and the siege is lifted.”
The Houthis have also repeatedly targeted merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, drawing retaliatory strikes by Israel, the United States and Britain.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the United States has intensified its bombing campaign, with almost daily strikes for more than a month.
Houthi media said this week that US strikes on the movement’s stronghold of Saada killed at least 68 people, all Africans being held at a “center for illegal migrants.”
The United States said in April its strikes since March 15 had hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen and killed “hundreds of Houthi fighters.”
On Friday, the Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were wounded in a US air strike the previous night in Al Wahda district, citing a preliminary toll.

All aboard Gaza aid flotilla confirmed safe, Malta government says

Updated 5 min 45 sec ago
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All aboard Gaza aid flotilla confirmed safe, Malta government says

  • Maltese government: ‘The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported’

VALLETTA: Everyone aboard an aid flotilla for Gaza that was hit by drones in international waters off Malta overnight are “confirmed safe,” the Maltese government said in a statement on Friday.
“The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported,” the statement said, adding that a nearby tug had been directed to aid the vessel.
“The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 1:28 a.m. (2328 GMT Thursday), the fire was reported under control. An Armed Forces of Malta patrol vessel was also dispatched to provide further assistance,” the government said.
“By 2:13 a.m., all crew were confirmed safe but refused to board the tug ... The ship remains outside territorial waters and is being monitored by the competent authorities,” the statement concluded.


Sudan’s war-ravaged Khartoum tiptoes back to life after recapture by army

Updated 02 May 2025
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Sudan’s war-ravaged Khartoum tiptoes back to life after recapture by army

  • In a lightning offensive in March, the army recaptured the city center, including the presidential palace and the airport
  • Within the next six months, the UN expects more than two million displaced people to return to the capital if security conditions allow

KHARTOUM: In war-ravaged Khartoum donkey carts clatter over worn asphalt, the smell of tomatoes wafts from newly reopened stalls and pedestrians dodge burnt-out cars left by two years of war.
Life is slowly, cautiously returning to the Sudanese capital, weeks after the army recaptured the city from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who had held it since soon after fighting erupted in April 2023.
Stallholder Maqbool Essa Mohamed was laying out his wares in the large market in the southern neighborhood of Kalakla.
“People feel safe again,” he said. “Business is moving and there’s security.”
Just weeks ago this market was deserted – shops shuttered, streets silent and snipers perched on rooftops.
In a lightning offensive in March, the army recaptured the city center, including the presidential palace and the airport, and the RSF was shed back into the western outskirts of greater Khartoum.
But the RSF remain within artillery range of the city center, as they demonstrated twice this week with a bombardment of the army’s General Command headquarters last Saturday followed by shelling of the presidential palace on Thursday.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million.
In greater Khartoum alone, more than 3.5 million people have fled their homes, leaving entire neighborhoods abandoned.
Within the next six months, the UN expects more than two million displaced people to return to the capital if security conditions allow.
Kalakla, a neighborhood on the road to Jebel Awliya – once an RSF bastion – suffered heavily during the war.
Its location close to a military base made it a prime target, with RSF fighters encircling the area and cutting off food and water for the civilians trapped inside.
In July 2023 activists called it “uninhabitable.”
But now women can be seen on the roadside brewing tea – a common sight before the war – as a man dragging his suitcase stands beside a minibus, newly arrived in the war-torn neighborhood.
Public transport has yet to return to normal as fragile security conditions and crumbling infrastructure impede movement.
With buses packed to capacity, weary commuters climb atop vehicles, preferring the risky ride over an indefinite wait for the next bus – which may not come for hours.
From January, the army began advancing in the greater Khartoum area and by late March had wrested back control of both Khartoum and the industrial city of Khartoum North just across the Blue Nile.
Standing amid the wreckage of the presidential palace, army chief Burhan declared: “Khartoum is free.”
The paramilitaries are now confined to the southern and western outskirts of Omdurman, the third of the three cities that make up greater Khartoum.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and indiscriminately bombing residential neighborhoods.
The RSF in particular has been notorious for systematic sexual violence, ethnic cleansing and rampant looting.
“They left nothing,” said Mohamed Al-Mahdi, a longtime resident. “They destroyed the country and took our property.”
Today, Mahdi steers his bicycle through the recovering market, where vehicles, animal carts and pedestrians jostle for space under the wary eye of the army.
Earlier this month, Sudan’s state news agency reported that the army-backed government plans to restore the water supply to the area – a basic necessity still out of reach for many.
But for vendor Serelkhitm Shibti, the costs of the war are not about lost income or damaged infrastructure.
“What pains me is every drop of blood that fell in this land, not the money I lost,” he said.


Israeli military strikes near Syria’s presidential palace after warning over sectarian attacks

Updated 02 May 2025
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Israeli military strikes near Syria’s presidential palace after warning over sectarian attacks

DAMASCUS, Syria: Israel’s air force struck near Syria’s presidential palace early Friday hours after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.
The strike came after days of clashes between pro-Syrian government gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze minority sect near the capital, Damascus. The clashes left dozens of people dead or wounded.
The Israeli army said in a statement that fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the Palace of President Hussein Al-Sharaa in Damascus. It gave no further details.
Pro-government Syrian media outlets said the strike hit close to the People’s Palace on a hill overlooking the city.
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus.


US meets Syria’s top diplomat, urges action to protect Druze minority

Updated 02 May 2025
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US meets Syria’s top diplomat, urges action to protect Druze minority

  • State Department spokeswoman confirms meeting in New York between US and Syrian delegations

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday confirmed meeting Syria’s top diplomat and called on the interim authorities to take action on concerns, as violence flares against the Druze minority.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani last Friday raised his new country’s flag at the UN headquarters, marking a new chapter after the overthrowing in December of longtime ruler Bashar Assad.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed that US representatives met the Syrian delegation in New York on Tuesday.
She said that the United States urged the post-Assad authorities to “choose policies that reinforce stability,” without providing any assessment on progress.
“Any future normalization of relations or lifting of sanctions... will depend on the interim authority’s actions and positive response to the specific confidence-building measures we have communicated,” Bruce told reporters.
The demands were in line with those set out in December by the United States, then led by president Joe Biden, and include protecting minorities and preventing a role in Syria by Assad’s ally Iran.
Since the Islamist fighters toppled Assad, sectarian clashes have repeatedly flared.
The spiritual leader of the Druze community on Thursday alleged a “genocidal campaign” after two days of violence left 102 people dead.
“We urge the interim authorities to hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable for their actions and ensure the security of all Syrians,” Bruce said of the violence against Druze.