Drone strike hits ship off India’s coast

AFP | Dubai                                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A drone strike damaged a ship off the coast of India yesterday but caused no casualties, two maritime agencies said, with one reporting the merchant vessel was linked to Israel. The attack caused a fire on board, said the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO.

Ambrey, a maritime security firm, said the “Liberia-flagged chemical/products tanker... was Israel-affiliated” and had been on its way from Saudi Arabia to India. Both agencies said the attack occurred 200 nautical miles southwest of Veraval, India.

They did not name the vessel. The Indian navy said it had responded to a request for assistance. “An aircraft was dispatched and it reached overhead the vessel and established safety of the involved ship and its crew,” a navy official said. “An Indian navy warship has also been dispatched so as to provide assistance as required.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike which came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza.

The Huthis have declared themselves part of an “axis of resistance” of Iran’s allies and proxies targeting Israel over its war with Hamas. Last month, an Israeli-owned cargo ship was hit in a suspected drone attack by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Indian Ocean, according to a US official.