DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) – Investigators have concluded that an Iranian drone was used to bomb an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire last week, the United States (US) Navy said on Tuesday.
The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon last Tuesday off the coast of Oman appears to be part of the long-running shadow war between Israel and its archenemy Iran that has included the targetting of Israeli-linked ships in strategic Mideast waterways.
The Navy said explosives experts boarded the ship to assess the damage, including a 76-centimetre hole punched in its side, and to collect debris and bomb residue.
The evidence was taken to a lab at the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in the Gulf Arab nation of Bahrain.
Navy investigators concluded that the drone used was an Iranian Shahed-136, the same kind of bomb-carrying drone Iran has supplied to Russia in its war on Ukraine. Iranian drones were used by Yemeni rebels to attack Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year, the Navy said.
“The Iranian attack on a commercial tanker transiting international waters was deliberate, endangering the lives of the ship’s crew and destabilising maritime security in the Middle East,” said US Naval Forces Central Command Commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper.
