Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, November 17, 2022

Drone that hit Israeli-owned tanker launched by IRGC — official

By Emanuel Fabian 17 November 2022, 2:32 pm 0 Edit

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent.

Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon, operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping in Jebel Ali port, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on August 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Nabeel Hashmi)

An Iranian Shahed-136 drone that struck an Israeli-owned oil tanker near Oman on Tuesday was launched from Iran, a Western official says.

According to a BBC report, the official says the drone was launched from the IRGC’s Air Force regional command in the southeastern city of Chabahar.

The attack caused damage to the vessel but no injuries.

Earlier, an Israeli defense source separately told Army Radio that the drone was launched from Iranian territory, saying “the Iranians are no longer hiding behind their proxies, they have made a mistake and will not be able to evade [blame] for the action.”

Iran has supplied the same model of drone to Russia, which has been using them to target infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine.