An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran.

The Associated Press reports about this.

The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged Pacific Zircon oil tanker occurred Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, as one Mideast-based defense official shared with The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss the attack publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Pacific Zircon is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.

In its statement, Eastern Pacific Shipping claimed that the Pacific Zircon, carrying gas oil, had been “hit by a projectile” some 150 miles (240 kilometers) off the coast of Oman.

“We are in communication with the vessel, and there are no reports of injuries or pollution. All crew members are safe and accounted for,” the company said. “There is some minor damage to the vessel’s hull but no spillage of cargo or water ingress.”

An Israeli official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss unpublicized details of the attack, mentioned that it appears Iran carried out the attack with a Shahed-136 kamikaze drone. Iran has been supplying those drones to Russia, which has been using them to target infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine.

Although no one publicly claimed responsibility for the attack off the coast of Oman, suspicion immediately fell on Iran. Tehran and Israel have been engaged in a multi-year hybrid war in the Middle East, in which some drone attacks have been targeting Israeli-linked vessels traveling through the region.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, the analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, shared that the attack “does not come as a surprise.”

“The risk of attacks against shipping industry and energy infrastructure in the wider region is rising mainly due to the lack of progress in U.S.-Iranian nuclear diplomacy and Washington’s decision to apply further sanction pressure on Iran,” he said.

Shahed-136

Shahed-136 kamikaze drone is manufactured by Iran’s military industry. In 2021, a truck-mounted launcher for the salvo launch of Iran’s “Shahed-136” loitering munitions was demonstrated for the first time in Iran. Containers with such drones can be easily placed not only on trucks, but also on railway train cars, various ships, and other mobile vehicles.

The effective range of the Shahed 136 is presumably at least 1,000 kilometers, with the ability to deliver a warhead weighing 50 kilograms. The maximum flight altitude of the UAV is 4,000 meters, with a cruising speed of about 180km/h. The UAV has a loud MD 550 engine.

The UAV is equipped with an inertial guidance system. The drone has a delta-shaped triangular wing, a total weight of 200 kg, a total length of 3.5 m, and a wingspan of 2.5 m. The weight of the high-explosive warhead is 40-50 kg.