Egypt confirms US-owned tanker fire a result of drone attack

The Egyptian Cabinet confirmed on Thursday that a drone caused fire on two gas vessels at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta the previous day, Reuters reported.

The Cabinet did not blame any party for the attack, saying that authorities are still investigating the incident.

The drone reportedly hit a U.S.-owned, Marshall Island-flagged floating gas storage tanker. No casualties were reported, Reuters cited the maritime security firm Ambrey as saying.

Ahmad Sharawi, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen most likely carried out the attack, which resembles Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure elsewhere in the region. If confirmed, he attack would mark the first strike by Iran or its proxies against Egypt since the start of the conflict in February.

“This attack might be a message to the Egyptians that we can reach the Suez Canal and we can really close the Suez Canal,” Sharawi told JNS.

Following the attack, two Iranian sources told The New York Times that the drone attack was designed to show that global shipping and energy supplies could be more deeply disrupted if Iran chose to escalate, heavily implying Iran’s involvement in the strike.

However, they did not clarify whether Tehran or any of its proxies in the region was behind the attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had been briefed on the attack, and repeated the threat he made earlier on Wednesday that the United States planned to hit Iran “hard” in response to the latest salvo of Iranian missile and drone strikes against U.S. forces in Jordan.

“It’s our turn to hit them,” Trump said. “They know it’s coming. They’re asking us not to do it.”

Iran attacks Kuwait, Jordan

Meanwhile, kinetic strikes in the Mideast region continued on Thursday, with Kuwait saying on X that Iran struck a building belonging to a Chinese company in the north of the country, killing one employee and causing heavy damage to property.

Earlier, Jordan’s military said it downed five missiles launched by the Islamic Republic in the early morning hours, according to the Times.

Moreover, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it had redirected two tankers that attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz, after a fire broke out on one of the ships via an “unsafe route,” the report continued.

On the previous night, the U.S. military launched what it described as a “heavy wave of strikes” against Iranian targets.

U.S. Central Command said the “powerful response,” which lasted for some two hours, hit dozens of IRGC sites across the Islamic Republic.

According to CENTCOM, it struck military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, as well as maritime capabilities.