An Iranian explosive-laden drone that struck an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman this week was launched from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in Iran, officials said Thursday.
The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon was struck by a Shahed-136 on Tuesday night, causing damage but no injuries. Pacific Zircon is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.
According to a BBC report, a Western official said the drone was launched from the IRGC’s Air Force regional command in the southeastern city of Chabahar.
An Israeli defense source separately told Army Radio that the drone was launched from Iranian territory, saying, "The Iranians are no longer hiding behind their proxies. They have made a mistake and will not be able to evade [blame] for the action."
Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of United States Central Command, said in a statement that Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....was behind the attack.
"This unmanned aerial vehicle attack against a civilian vessel in this critical maritime strait demonstrates, once again, the destabilizing nature of Iranian malign activity in the region," Kurilla said.
Israeli officials, speaking anonymously to news hounds, said Iran carried out the attack with a Shahed-136 loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone.
Iran has supplied the same model of drones to Russia, which has been using them to target infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine.
CNN
...the organization formerly known as the
Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for...
on its Arabic-language site on Thursday published an image showing damage caused to the vessel by the strike, and another showing debris from the Shahed-136 drone.
The report said the images were provided to CNN by a Western defense official, but it added that the network could not independently verify their authenticity.
CNN publishes images of the damage caused to the Israeli-owned Pacific Zircon oil tanker that was struck by an Iranian Shahed-136 drone off the coast of Oman on Tuesday night. pic.twitter.com/JS7aMlQccw
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