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A chemical tanker operating in the Indian Ocean was attacked by a drone launched from Iran, raising the threat to international merchant shipping, according to the US military.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the Chem Pluto was struck about 200 nautical miles off the coast of India on Saturday by a “disposable attack drone launched from Iran.” It was the seventh attack by Iranian forces on commercial shipping since 2021, the statement said.
“There were no injuries and a fire on board the tanker was extinguished,” a defense ministry spokesman said.
The attack marks the first time the United States has accused Iran of a direct attack on a civilian ship since Israel's war with Hamas began in October.
The latest incident also expands the geographic area of a spate of attacks focused on the Red Sea, complicating the U.S.-led military response to protect maritime shipping.
The United States on Friday accused Iran of being “deeply implicated” in the series of attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea in recent months, leading to the biggest reshaping of global trade since Russia's full invasion of of Ukraine.
Iran has denied supporting the Houthis in the attacks. Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran's foreign minister, said on national television that the US accusation was “baseless.”
“This is a Yemeni decision to defend and support Gaza,” he added.
The Indian Coast Guard said it had sent a patrol ship and a maritime surveillance aircraft to provide assistance to the Chem Pluto, which was carrying 20 Indian nationals and a Vietnamese worker.
In a separate incident, U.S. Central Command said it shot down four unmanned drones that targeted the military ship USS Laboon and received reports of two ships being attacked in the southern Red Sea on Saturday.
These attacks were the 14th and 15th attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi fighters since October 17. They largely focused on a key bottleneck of world trade in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, through which 10-12 percent of world trade passes.
Most attacks targeted ships that had some connection to Israel, from partial ownership or operator to the ship's planned route.
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While Chem Pluto is Liberian-flagged and Japanese-owned, Dutch operator Ace Quantum Chemical Tankers is linked to Israeli shipowner Idan Ofer, according to Lloyd's List, a shipping publication.
An Israeli official said the Chem Pluto has a “medium” affiliation with the country.
“This is a global issue as the ship was hit during a voyage from Saudi Arabia to India and not in the Suez area,” the official added.
Due to increasing dangers in the region, 314 container ships capable of carrying 4.2 million 20-foot containers had been stopped or rerouted around Africa, avoiding the route to the Suez Canal, as of Friday afternoon, according to Kühne+Nagel, a logistics group.