Iran war widens as Egypt port drone strike sparks Suez route fears

A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta signalled a potential new front in the US-Iran war, raising the prospect of threats to navigation through the Suez Canal, a last remaining safe export route for Saudi oil. The Egyptian cabinet said on Thursday that an initial investigation showed that an unidentified drone caused a fire on Wednesday

on two vessels at Damietta port, near the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.

 

No group has claimed responsibility, the cabinet said, adding that authorities were taking measures to protect Egypt's national security. Trading sources familiar with the incident said the drone hit US-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to another vessel. Overnight, the US military said it struck Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ command centres and drone facilities after Tehran fired at US forces in the region.

 

  Iranian state media, quoting the Guards, said three civilians were killed and two children wounded in US strikes on Qeshm Island, while three Guards members were killed in Zanjan province. The governor of Khuzestan province, cited by Iranian state media, said two student dormitory complexes in the south-western city of Ahvaz were damaged in the overnight attacks.

 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it struck the US-run Azraq base in Jordan in response to the US strikes. “With the help of God, the aggressor will be punished today,” it said earlier in a statement carried by state media. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about damage at the Azraq base. 

US bases in Jordan have lately become primary Iranian targets. Jordan's armed forces said earlier on Thursday they had intercepted five Iranian missiles. An Iranian attack also hit a building owned by a Chinese company in northern Kuwait, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage, Kuwait's Defence Ministry said.

  The latest strikes in Iraq and Egypt threatened to draw more Middle Eastern countries into the conflict after the Iran-aligned

Houthis in Yemen declared a naval blockade last week on Saudi Arabia, threatening the alternative Red Sea route for its oil to Asia. Attacks on ships by the Houthi militants prompted London’s marine insurance market to widen its “high risk” zone in the Red Sea to include more of the coast adjacent to Saudi Arabian ports.

 

Qatar LNG tanker crosses Hormuz, first in over 2 weeks  A QatarEnergy-controlled liquefied natural gas tanker exited the Strait of Hormuz overnight, the first such vessel recorded by shiptracking data leaving the waterway since July 11, data from analytics firms showed on Thursday. The Al Areesh, which loaded a cargo at Qatar's Ras Laffan terminal around July 4 to July 6, sailed on July 29 from the strait blockaded in the Iran war, data from Kpler showed. LSEG data shows it is currently heading to Port Qasim in Pakistan, estimated to arrive on July 31.