A very large container carrier (VLCC) is making its way west through the Gulf of Aden towards the Red Sea after it was attacked by a drone while taking on cargo at the al-Dhabba oil terminal near Ash Shihr on the coast of Yemen.
According to reports, Houthi rebels were responsible for the drone strike on the Pratika.
The Panama-flagged vessel wasn’t damaged in the strike and is said to have immediately interrupted its load to head out to safer water.
The VLCC was reportedly circled by a drone while it was making its way to al-Dhabba from the Gulf of Oman.
The incident comes several days after Israel accused Iran of a drone attack off the coast of Oman last Wednesday.
CNN reported that last week’s incident was described as “an Iranian provocation in the Gulf”, linked to the World Cup in Qatar.”
The news channel said “a self-destructing drone attacked the Pacific Zircon, a Liberian-flagged, Israeli-affiliated tanker carrying gas oil, at about 10 pm Monday, but it did not cause major damage, according to a US military official.
“The drone did not disable the ship or interrupt its journey, the official said.
“An Israeli official said the weapon was an Iranian ‘HESA Shahed 136 self-destructing drone, the same ones being used in Ukraine.
“Iran has sent its self-destructing drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, underscoring the extent to which Iran has developed its attack drone technology.
“We see this as an Iranian provocation in the Gulf; it’s not an attack against Israel – it’s the same thing they usually do in the Gulf, trying to disrupt stability and mainly influence World Cup events,” said the Israeli official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
The US Central Command later said in a statement that “exploitation of the debris that hit the vessel reveals that it was a Shahed-series one-way attack drone”.
“This unmanned aerial vehicle attack against a civilian vessel in this critical maritime strait demonstrates, once again, the destabilising nature of Iranian malign activity in the region,” General Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, said in a statement.
