The oil tanker owned by an Israeli millionaire attacked late Tuesday in the Gulf of Oman was reportedly hit by a drone launched from Iranian territory, according to Israel Defense Forces sources.
An Israeli Defense source has indicated this Thursday on the Galatz radio station, a radio station operated by the Israel Defense Forces, that the drone would have been launched from Iranian territory, according to the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
In fact, this Thursday, CNN has published some images in its Arabic version showing a hole in the frame of the ship, called ‘Pacific Zircon’, as well as the remains of a drone.
The attacked ship was transiting the Gulf of Oman when it was hit by a drone in the Gulf of Oman. Both Israel and the United States point out that the unmanned device is Iranian-made.
The incident took place hours after the US Fifth Fleet announced the interception in the Gulf of Oman of a “fishing vessel” carrying “lethal aid” to the Houthis, including “a large quantity of explosive materials”, from of Iran, without Tehran having ruled on the matter.
Iran, as the Israeli side has pointed out, would have used a Shahed-136 drone, a model that, it says, Tehran has recently been supplying to Moscow as part of its offensive against Ukraine, which began nearly nine months ago.
US authorities have also accused Iran of having attacked the tanker with a drone, an event that, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, “further” threatens the freedom of navigation in the area.
For its part, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has specified that “an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle carried out a one-way attack” against the vessel, which carries the Liberian flag.
“This attack (…) demonstrates, once again, the destabilizing nature of Iranian malign activity in the region,” General Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of the US Central Command, said in a statement.
