Just days after Iranian state media threatened the Egyptian port of Damietta, a drone struck a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker in the seaport.
The blaze also engulfed a nearby Greek tanker. “The drone reportedly hit a US-owned floating storage and regasification vessel, Energos Winter, sparking a blaze that spread to a Greek-owned LNG tanker, GasLog Salem,” BBC reported Wednesday. The broadcaster observed that “Iranian forces and Iranian-backed armed groups have carried out similar attacks on tankers in the Gulf and Red Sea as well as energy infrastructure in several Arab states.”
The Egyptian government confirmed a drone attack on its territory. “A drone caused the fire that engulfed two gas vessels at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, the Egyptian cabinet said on Thursday, confirming that the blaze which erupted a day earlier was the result of an attack rather than an accident,” Reuters reported.
The Mediterranean port of Damietta, located 43 miles west of the Suez Canal entrance, is a major Egyptian deep-water seaport. Saudi Arabia has been rerouting its gas and oil exports to the Suez Canal as Iran and its terrorist proxies disrupt shipping in the Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb straits. Reuters added that the Suez Canal “has become the last safe evacuation route for Saudi oil to global markets.”
Ahead of the drone strike, Iranian regime media had been threatening to hit the Egyptian port. Noting Tehran’s involvement, Euronews TV channel reported that “Iranian state television had identified Damietta as a possible target.”
“The map shown on state-run TV described Damietta as “a gateway for gas exports to Europe,” the French broadcaster added.
When asked about the Iranian hand in the attack, President Donald Trump didn’t directly respond, but told reporters that the U.S. was “going to be hitting them very hard because it’s our turn to hit them.”
After Iran on Tuesday fired several ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan, the American military responded with overwhelming force. According to Central Command (CENTCOM), the U.S. on Wednesday night carried out “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” in response to a sneak attack on American military forces.
The U.S. forces struck “dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities. The strikes aimed to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries,” CENTCOM added.
With Wednesday’s drone attack, Iran is waging a multipronged war against the U.S. and its allies in the region. While Iran attacks oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen-based Houthis have declared a blockade of the Red Sea strait of Bab el-Mandeb. With both waterways under attack, Iran and its terrorist proxies are trying to disrupt shipping in the Suez Canal, the only remaining outlet for oil and gas exports in the region.
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