Drone hits US-owned storage tanker at Egypt port, in major Middle East escalation, security firm says

LONDON/CAIRO/WASHINGTON - A drone hit a US-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said in an initial assessment on July 29, and US President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for an overnight attack, as the Middle East conflict appeared to expand beyond its main fronts.

A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

The drone hit floating storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that then spread to another vessel, three trading sources familiar with the incident said.

The fire was dealt with immediately with no casualties, the petroleum ministry said.

The incident, which Trump said he had been briefed on, came amid a sharp escalation in the conflict, with Iran firing missiles at US forces in Jordan and the United States and Saudi Arabia striking Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq.

Alongside Yemen’s Houthi group declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, the latest exchanges suggest the conflict is spreading further than it has since US and Israel started bombing Iran in February.

Trump vowed to retaliate against Iran for firing on US troops days after he halted air strikes.

“So it’s our turn,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

He said Washington would see if there was an agreement with Iran at some point, “but we’re going to hit them very hard.”

Iran confirmed overnight that it had fired on US bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also spurned an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait.

Trump had said operations against Iran would last only a few weeks when he launched them in February but fighting has now gone on for five months with no end in sight.

Oil prices shot up on July 29 in one of the sharpest spikes of the five-month war.

Brent crude futures rose more than 8 per cent to push the benchmark well above US$90 a barrel, reversing much of a plunge earlier this week when Trump had unexpectedly halted US strikes over the weekend.

‘Death to America’ shouted in Iraq

The joint US-Saudi attacks also mark the first time Riyadh has publicly joined strikes alongside Washington.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, powerful Iran-backed paramilitary groups incorporated into the Iraqi security forces, said at least 20 members were killed and 32 wounded in US-Saudi strikes targeting several bases across Iraq.

Iraqi men shouted Shi’ite sectarian slogans and “Death to America!” as they carried the bodies of slain fighters in body bags. Washington and Riyadh said they struck the Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from Iraq.

It was the first major US military action in the Middle East since July 24, when Trump abruptly suspended an intensive bombing campaign after 13 days, having been advised by commanders that the strategy had run its course.

US officials have privately cautioned that resuming major combat operations against Iran would carry risk given the negative impact on stocks of munitions.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank, estimated this week that the US military has fewer than 1,000 Patriot interceptor inventories and fewer than 250 THAAD interceptors – two key air defence systems.

Though Iran denies its forces have directed strikes from Iraqi territory, Iranian newspaper Hamshahri reported that four Iranian Revolutionary Guards advisers had been killed in the strikes on Iraq.

Iraq’s dangerous rift

The strikes on Iraq expose a dangerous rift in that volatile country. The Shi’ite-led government is one of the few in the world to balance close military and diplomatic ties with both Tehran and Washington, but those divided loyalties are a constant source of tension and frequent domestic unrest.

The office of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took power just two months ago, urged the parties involved to avoid escalation and said he wanted to keep the country out of regional conflicts.

The Iraqi presidency denounced the strikes on the paramilitaries as “an unacceptable attack and a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”, while also calling for a halt to attacks by armed groups against Iraq’s neighbours.

The deep ties between Iran and Iraq, the two biggest Shi’ite-majority countries, are on display this week as hundreds of thousands of Iranian religious pilgrims head to shrines in Iraq for an annual observance of mourning for martyrs.

US says it averted Iranian attack on its troops

Hours before launching the joint attacks with Saudi Arabia on Iraq, the US military said its air defences had averted a surprise Iranian attack on US troops in the region.

Jordan’s military said it had shot down five Iranian missiles. US bases in Jordan have lately become primary Iranian targets, where three US service members were killed this month in the worst US losses since March.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had fired several ballistic missiles at US military installations in Jordan, and had struck three tankers that were attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorised route. REUTERS