The explosion of a US tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta on Wednesday was the result of an Iranian drone attack, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing two Iranians who requested anonymity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The NYT’s sources did not specify which group launched the drone, saying only that it was launched from Iran. Egypt’s Cabinet issued a statement a few hours later confirming that the incident was caused by a drone and stating that no party had claimed responsibility for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The drone hit floating storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire<\/a> that spread to another vessel, Gaslog Salem, three trading sources familiar with the incident said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The incident occurred shortly after Iran carried out a missile attack against US forces in Jordan, and Washington and Saudi Arabia<\/a> struck Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq.<\/p>\n Through a video posted on social media, Reuters verified the location by the port infrastructure, the storage tanks, and ship-tracking data that matched the archive and satellite imagery.\u00a0<\/p>\n A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack and did not provide a cause for the incident, noting that there were no injuries or deaths.<\/p>\n Egyptian Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi went to the site to oversee response efforts, it said. The fire caused no injuries or fatalities, and emergency and technical teams were continuing to work on the response and assess the impact of the incident, the statement added.<\/p>\n