An oil tanker partly owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer was struck last night by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman. An unnamed official from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military organization monitoring shipping in the region, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "We are aware of an incident and it's being investigated at this time." The official identified the vessel attacked as the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon. It's operated by Eastern Pacific Shipping, located in Singapore, which is a company owned by Ofer.
No group or country has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Still, an unnamed Israeli security source blamed Iran today for the attack. According to the source, the attack was carried out using a Shaed-136 attack drone of the type Iran sold to Russia and has been used against Ukrainian civilians. The Israeli source estimated that the attack was an act of defiance against the West and could have been designed to cast a shadow on the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. For the moment, Israeli authorities have not reacted to the incident and have issued no special travel warning to Israelis visiting Qatar for the World Cup. For its part, Iran-affiliated Nournews blamed Israel, tweeting, ''The Zionists' evil during the World Cup, started earlier. Regional competitions and cabinet formation crisis in Israel, have activated Hebrew-Arab axis to attack the oil tanker.''
