Published December 24, 2023
- Iran hit a chemical tanker off the coast of India, the US said
- It says that the US and other western states have backed Israel’s ‘crimes’ in Gaza
- It’s believed to be the first time the US has publicly accused Iran of attack ships
The US has accused Iran of being behind a drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean.
The attack on the Chem Pluto on Saturday resulted in a fire, though no casualties were reported.
Though Iran has not commented on the attack, the US military said the ‘one-way attack’ was delivered by a ‘drone fired from Iran.’
It is understood to be the first time the US has accused Iran of targeting a ship directly. It is also believed to be the furthest attack undertaken by Iran from its own soil.
Yesterday, it accused Iran of backing Houthi rebels in Yemen who have targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The accusations comes as Iran has threatened to close off the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea if Israel and its allies continue to commit ‘crimes’ in Gaza.
Iran, which has backed Hamas, accused the US and other western states of propping up Israel’s alleged war crimes committed during its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, where more than 20,000 people have died since October 7.
‘They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, (the Strait of) Gibraltar and other waterways,’ Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior member of the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Corps, said on Saturday.
The Iran-aligned Houthi group, based in Yemen, has attacked several merchant vessels sailing through the Red Sea in retaliation against Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, disrupting global trade and forcing some shipping companies to switch routes.
The White House said on Friday that Iran was ‘deeply involved’ in the planning of these attacks.
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: Tanker Ship Off India Hit by Attack Drone ‘Fired From Iran,’ Pentagon Says
Published December 23, 2023
WASHINGTON — A Japanese-owned chemical tanker struck Saturday off the coast of India was targeted by a drone “fired from Iran,” the Pentagon said in a statement, a sign of expanding risks to commercial shipping beyond the Red Sea.
The attack came amid a flurry of drone and missile strikes by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a vital Red Sea shipping lane. The attacks began after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with the rebel group claiming to act in solidarity with Gaza.
Saturday’s attack took place around 10 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) and caused no casualties aboard the vessel, the Pentagon statement said, adding that a fire had been extinguished.
The U.S. military “remains in communication with the vessel as it continues toward a destination in India,” the statement said.
The drone strike occurred 370 kilometers off the coast of India, it said, adding that no U.S. Navy vessels were in the vicinity.
It was the first time the Pentagon has openly accused Iran of directly targeting ships since the start of Israel’s war on the militant group Hamas, which is backed by Iran and is a designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., U.K, EU and others.
In an interview published Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron branded Iran a “malign influence” and pledged stepped-up deterrence toward Tehran.
“Iran is a thoroughly malign influence in the region and in the world — there’s no doubt about that,” he told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
“You’ve got the Houthis, you’ve got Hezbollah, you’ve got the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that have actually been attacking British and American bases, troops. And, of course, Hamas.
“So you’ve got all of these proxies, and I think it’s incredibly important that, first of all, Iran receives an incredibly clear message that this escalation will not be tolerated.”
The former British prime minister echoed accusations by the United States Friday that Iran is involved in attacks on commercial ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, providing drones, missiles and tactical intelligence.
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SOURCE: www.voanews.com
RELATED: Pentagon Says Drone That Hit Tanker Near India Was Launched From Iran
Published December 23, 2023
The Department of Defense(DOD) on Saturday said a drone that struck a tanker off the coast of India was fired from Iran.
The tanker M/V Chem Pluto was struck by what the Pentagon described as a “one-way attack drone” about 200 nautical miles off the coast of India Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. It is the first time that the U.S. has accused Iran of launching an attack on a merchant ship since Hamas carried out a deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on multiple locations in southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people.
“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Greenwich Mean time) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” the DOD said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There were no casualties and a fire on board the tanker has been extinguished. No U.S. Navy vessels were in the vicinity. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command remains in communication with the vessel as it continues toward a destination in India. This is the seventh Iranian attack on commercial shipping since 2021.”
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SOURCE: www.dailycaller.com
