"Blatant and dangerous." US investigation: Iranian drone bombed tanker linked to Israel

"Blatant and dangerous." US investigation:

Iranian drone bombed tanker linked to Israel

The U.S. Navy announced that a team of its investigators had found that an Iranian drone had been used to bomb an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire last week, calling the incident "blatant and dangerous."

The United States

Navy reported that explosives experts boarded

the vessel to assess the damage

which included a 76 centimetre hole in its side

and to collect debris and bomb residue. The evidence was transferred to a laboratory at the United States Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

Navy investigators found that the drone used was an Iranian-made "witness-136", claiming that it was the same type that Iran supplied to Russia.

The U.S. :

• Navy added that Ansarullah (Al-Houthi)

• in Yemen used the same Iranian drones to strike targets in

• This year, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Iranian attack on a commercial tanker

moving in international waters is deliberate

 flagrant and dangerous, endangering the lives of the ship's crew and destabilizing navigation in the Middle East," said Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command.

The tanker operates Western Pacific Navigation

based in Singapore

• a business that Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer owns.

• Israeli and US officials said at the time that

• Iran was suspected of standing behind the attack.

Iran denied any involvement in the attack, and its mission to the United Nations dismissed the accusations as "false news" in a statement last week.

Iranian officials have not yet commented on the US investigation.

Israel accuses Iran of targeting oil tanker belonging to it off the coast of Oman

A senior security official accused Iran of being behind the attack on an Israeli-owned oil tanker off the coast of Oman, Israeli army radio said.

Israeli sites stated that the "Pacific Zircon"

• tanker belonged to a naval company of which the Israeli billionaire

• Idan Ofer, was part

• and that the attack was carried out by Iran.

Local sources also reported that the United States Army had informed its Israeli counterpart that the march used for the attack belonged to the Iranian "witness" group. This comes after an Iranian attempt to liquidate an Israeli businessman in Georgia was thwarted on Tuesday.

For its part

• Israeli-administered Estern Pacifik Shipping said on

• Wednesday that the attack resulted in minor damage to

• the tanker's body, without any injuries or leakage of its cargo from the solar.

The company, based in Singapore

which is responsible for the management of the ship, added that it was investigating the incident involving Pacific Zircon about 150 miles off the Omani coast.

According to data from Marine Traffic

which tracks navigation traffic

When last observed, Pacific Zircon was off the coast of

Liwa in the Sultanate of Oman on Monday morning.

The vessel had departed from Sahar in the Sultanate that same afternoon and was destined for the port of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

The United States Navy's Fifth Fleet earlier reported that it was aware of an accident involving a merchant ship in the Gulf of Oman, but did not provide further details.