President Joe Biden approved the strike - which killed at least one member of a Kataib Hezbollah-affiliated militia - in response to recent rocket attacks on US-led coalition bases in Iraq and the Green Zone in Baghdad. Limpet mines are attached with magnets.įriday’s explosion came just hours after the United States conducted an airstrike against a border-crossing facility used by Iran-linked militias in Syria.

Iran’s government denied a role in those attacks, but has not yet commented on today’s incident. The Pentagon subsequently released surveillance footage showing individuals in what appeared to be an Iranian-made boat removing a limpet mine from the side of one of the two damaged Saudi-owned tankers. The US military publicly blamed Iran for the incidents.

Similar mysterious explosions struck two Saudi oil tankers near the Hormuz Strait in 2019, as well as two other ships. Kan quoted Ungar as saying that the two holes are roughly 1.5 meters (5 feet) in diameter and that “it is not yet clear to us if this was caused by missile fire or mines that were attached to the ship.” The ship is owned by the Tel Aviv-based Ray Shipping company, whose head, Rami Ungar, has ties to Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, Israel’s Kan broadcaster reported, without naming sources. Reuters reported that an explosion above the ship’s water line caused holes in both sides of its hull, but that the vessel and crew were safe. It was believe that the vehicle carrier was headed to Dubai to assess the damage. The crew reported no injuries and the vessel continues to sail back toward the strait, according to an open-source maritime tracking website. The vessel, the MV Helios Ray, quickly turned around and headed for port around 1 a.m. morning after departing from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. An Israeli-owned cargo ship suffered at least one explosion while sailing in the Gulf of Oman on Friday in the latest such maritime incident in the Middle East.

Helios ray owner