Exploding drone parts are now part of the growing fight between the US and its partners and Iran. Oman said one struck a tanker and resulted in the death of a crew member.
Oman News Agency, the state news agency of the Sultanate of Oman, said on Monday that an oil tanker flagged to the Republic of the Marshall Islands “was attacked by an unmanned surface vessel.”
It said “the attack triggered a fire and explosion within the main engine room, resulting in the fatality of one crew member of Indian nationality.”
The tanker, MKD VYOM, was around 52 nautical miles off the coast of Oman and had 21 crew members on board: 16 Indian nationals, four Bangladeshi nationals, and one Ukrainian national. They were evacuated by commercial vessel MV SAND, which flies Panama’s flag, the report said.
It said that a vessel from Oman was monitoring the condition of the tanker that was hit and that it was giving navigational warnings to ships nearby. The hit tanker was carrying an estimated 59,463 metric tons of cargo.
The use of drone boats adds to what was already a growingly precarious situation in highly strategic waters, with reports of vessels being targeted and hit by incoming munitions.
Oman did not say who the drone boat belonged to. Iranian officials have said that Iran has them in its arsenal, and Iran has also repeatedly tried to steal US drone boats. The Iranians and their proxies in the region have also previously threatened and attacked merchant vessels.
No naval force operating in the region has said it is using the technology in the conflict that boiled over this past weekend.
Drone boats are an increasingly prominent warfighting technology. They gained notoriety as Ukraine used them against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, leveraging the low-cost assets to damage and destroy expensive Russian warships. Russia has since adopted the tech. Other actors, like the Houthi rebels, an Iranian proxy group in Yemen, have used them in attacks as well. Western militaries are using this technology too, but primarily for reconnaissance.
The waters around Oman and Iran are hugely important to global trade. They include the Strait of Hormuz, where around 20% of the world’s daily oil supply passes through.
Multiple ships came under fire in this area over the weekend and on Monday, with crews evacuated and some injured. Several major shipping companies have said that they are avoiding the area to keep crews safe.
The US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Sunday, hitting aircraft, command and control centers, warships, missile sites, and killing Iran’s Supreme Leader. Iran retaliated by firing towards a host of nearby countries that have US bases. Fighting continues.
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