At least one drone struck a US-owned tanker sailing under the Marshall Islands flag at Damietta Port on Egypt's Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, maritime security firm Ambrey said. In a separate statement, port services company Inchcape said two gas tankers caught fire at the port.
According to the report, the drone struck the Energos Winter, which is used as a floating storage facility for liquefied natural gas, and the resulting fire spread to another vessel, the GasLog Salem, three trade industry sources familiar with the incident said. Two separate security sources told Reuters that the explosion was caused by a drone strike.
Ambrey said the crews were evacuated and the fire was brought under control. No casualties were reported, no damage was caused to port infrastructure and no group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Egyptian authorities have so far sought to play down the significance of the incident and the claims that an attack took place. Egyptian media reported that a fire had broken out in the engine room of one of the vessels at the port and had been brought under control. Reports said an investigation had been opened into the circumstances of the blaze. Security officials told the Saudi Al Hadath that no attack had taken place at the port, while an Egyptian source said a committee appointed by the Petroleum Ministry would investigate the incident.
Inchcape said in a statement that the explosion occurred at the port's liquefied natural gas terminal during cargo unloading operations. Local authorities responded quickly and brought the situation under control, the company said, adding that the vessels involved had been moved safely away from the port area and that operations at other docks and terminals were expected to resume overnight.
The port where the explosion occurred appeared on a list of targets circulated over the weekend on pro-Iranian Telegram channels in response to a Ukrainian strike in the Caspian Sea against a vessel sailing between Russia and Iran. The list, which was never endorsed by any official Iranian source, included energy facilities linked to Europe, among them the SEGAS gas liquefaction plant in Damietta.
Since the war began in late February, Iran has attacked nearly every country in the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched missiles and drones at US facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and Iraq.
Missiles have also been intercepted over Turkey, a drone struck a British base in Cyprus and Azerbaijan accused Tehran of carrying out drone attacks on its territory. Until now, Egypt had remained outside that list.
