The attack on the tanker Mercer Street off the coast of Oman is a major escalation in an ongoing series of attacks on shipping that have increased this year. The ship is reportedly operated by Zodiac Maritime and reports say a UK and Romanian crew member were killed.The attack may have been carried out by a drone. Pro-Iran forces have used drones to attack US forces in Iraq, and Tehran has trafficked drones and drone technology to the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iraqi militias. Iran has also used drones to try attacking Israel from Syria in February 2018 and May 2021.
The incident in the Gulf of Oman or Arabian Sea, which is the same area, was apparently carried out by a kind of kamikaze drone. Iran has used these types of drones, sometimes called Ababil or Qasef when they are assembled by the Houthis in Yemen. Devices found in drones used by pro-Iran groups to attack Saudi Arabia and other countries in Yemen and other places have been linked to Iran in the past. For instance, these include gyroscopes on Shahed 123 drones. In May and June 2019, Iran also allegedly used mines to strike at six ships in the Gulf of Oman, badly damaging one. Before the latest incident, no one has been killed.
This year, Iran-Israel tensions have grown and there have been reports of attacks on several ships linked to the Jewish state. In March, then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for an attack on the Israel-linked Helios Ray. In April, the Hyperion Ray was also allegedly attacked. It was also a commercial ship linked to Israel and, according to foreign reports, the attack may have been carried out by Iran. At the time, reports said that the Hyperion Ray is partially owned by an Israeli businessman, but had no Israeli nationals on board.
Reports in early July said that a commercial ship previously owned by Israelis was attacked in the North Indian Ocean on July 3. This followed the April 13 incident and a March 25 incident, which involved the MT Lori, as well as the February 25 attack on the Helios Ray.
During the same period, several Iranian ships met with mysterious accidents. An Iranian naval ship was destroyed by fire on June 2, and a different Iranian ship was damaged by a mine in the Red Sea: allegedly an IRGC mother ship conducting illicit surveillance in the area. On March 11, The Wall Street Journal also reported that numerous tankers linked to Iran had been attacked by Israel in recent years. The report said that “in an episode last month, suspected Israeli operatives attached a limpet mine to attack an Iranian vessel as it anchored near Lebanon to deliver oil.”
WHAT HAS marked all of these reports so far is that no one has been killed. That changed on July 30 with reports that two were killed in the recent attack. The use of a drone was also a major escalation. Ship operator Zodiac Maritime has put out a statement about the attack, which described it as piracy. However, the use of a drone would indicate a state sponsor, since most non-state actors do not have advanced drone technology capable of targeting ships and killing people.US Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie has warned several times over the past year that drones pose a major and emerging threat in the region. He has referenced drones bought off-the-shelf that are commercial and can be modified, such as quadcopters, but the real threat is Iranian drones that are being trafficked to groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militias and to Syria.
A US official reportedly told the AP that it wasn’t yet clear who launched the attack. “The remark came after an earlier report from private maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global [that] referred to a drone sighting involving the vessel prior to the attack,” a report said.According to reports, the London-based Zodiac Maritime said that the ship is Liberian-flagged and was Japanese owned. This is because the world of maritime shipping is often complex and involves complex ownership, different flags for ships and owners, and multinational crews as well as a web of ownership and operator agreements. AFP says the oil tanker that was attacked is managed by a company owned by an Israeli businessman.
The National reports that “the British military's UK Maritime Trade Operations said an investigation was underway into the incident, which it described as happening late on Thursday night, north-east of the Omani island of Masirah.”
IRAN HAS been practicing using drones at sea in recent drills and operations, and has tested drones and missiles for precision attacks. The Islamic Republic has also outfitted IRGC fast boats with small drones that can be launched from the boats. Hours after the first reports of the attack on the tanker, the Saudis said they thwarted a drone attack on a ship as well.
The picture emerging is that Iran was behind the attack – and that it was sophisticated. Tehran has previously been careful about using drones to kill people. In September 2019 it used more than a dozen drones and cruise missiles to attack Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq facility, but no one was killed. In Iraq the Iranian drones have not killed US personnel, but targeted a CIA hangar.
What this means is that this is a potential game changer. While there have been numerous incidents at sea in the last six months, the overall goal of those carrying them out appears to be to avoid casualties. Iran, for instance, likely mined ships in May and June 2019 in the Gulf of Oman, but no one was killed. The question will be how countries that have now been threatened will respond.
The National’s report says that the British military group said it was "investigating another unexplained incident in the same area, but did not elaborate.” This is unclear but it hints that something else happened.
The fact that a drone attacked an oil tanker is also an escalation from attacks on commercial cargo ships. “At the time of the incident, the vessel was in the northern Indian Ocean, travelling from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah with no cargo on board,” Zodiac said of the incident. The fact that the ship had no cargo may mean that whoever planned the attack didn’t want to risk a major oil spill. However, the fact they killed two people would appear to point to a murderous act. Whether the international community and local naval powers will take this seriously remains to be seen.