The UK military is investigating a suspected armed drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman after two crewmen, one of them a British security guard, were killed.
Intelligence sources in the Ministry of Defence believe either Iran or Iranian-backed proxy forces were behind the attack on Thursday night, which marked a significant escalation in tensions in the region.
The target was MT Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged petroleum products tanker that was sailing northeast of the Omani island of Masirah. Four British citizens were understood to be on board.
The tanker is managed by an Israeli-owned shipping company, which described the attack as piracy. MoD sources disputed this, however, saying they believed it was part of a tit-for-tat exchange between Iran and Israel.
The attack was first reported by UK Maritime Trade Operations, a Royal Navy warning system for attacks on shipping which is part of the MoD.
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A military intelligence source said: “One of the crew members reported a drone dropping bombs near them and then the ship went offline and nobody could get hold of them.”
It is understood that a mayday call, signalling a life-threatening emergency, was picked up by other ships.
The tanker was travelling from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Fujairah, part of the United Arab Emirates and home to a busy bunkering port just outside the Strait of Hormuz.
“With profound sadness, we understand the incident on board the MT Mercer Street has resulted in the deaths of two crew members on board,” Zodiac Maritime, a company owned by one of Israel’s wealthiest men, Eyal Ofer, said. It added that the ship was operated by the company’s UK-based arm and that there were no other casualties.
The company later said the ship was travelling to a safe location with a US naval escort.
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“Our primary concern remains the safety and wellbeing of everybody on board,” Zodiac Maritime said. Iran and Israel have been involved in a series of attacks on each other’s shipping in the past two years. The use of drones has become a feature of such strikes, which have apparently been planned to avoid significant damage, loss of life or environmental consequences.
Neither side has admitted the attacks. However, the Iranian tankers involved have mostly been carrying oil to Syria, which Israel says is being used as a conduit for supplying arms to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia that targets Israel.
Iran has been accused by western nations of attacks on Gulf shipping owned by US allies, said to be in retaliation for the harsh sanctions reimposed by President Trump in 2018 when he tore up the 2015 US-Iran nuclear deal.
Dryad Global, a marine consultancy, said it appeared there had been a “warning drone” sent over earlier that day, which had set off flares. Then, at 3.40am — shortly before midnight, UK time — there was a explosion on board the ship that killed the two men.
The ship was operated by a multinational crew that also included Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Filipino, Georgian and Indian citizens. The other casualty was a Romanian sailor.
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Many ships travelling through the region now hire security officers — often former members of western armed forces — to help guard against the threat of piracy or other attack. The last similar incident was an attack on the CSAV Tyndall, a container ship, also Liberian-flagged, that had previously been owned by Zodiac but had just been sold.
Dryad Global said the incident bore the hallmarks of those previous attacks but that the deaths of crew members marked a “significant escalation in events that would likely lead to international condemnation and would require diplomatic redress”.
While Iran has never claimed credit for previous attacks, Iranian media and social media have reported them with apparent glee.
On this occasion, though, the reports were more muted, a possible indication that killing the two crewmen is regarded as a dangerous error.
