Israel has blamed Iran for a suspected drone assault on a tanker in the Arabian Sea, which killed two crew members, a British national and a Romanian citizen. 

When the incident happened on Thursday, the MV Mercer Street, managed by the London-based firm Zodiac Maritime, was off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. The incident appears to follow a pattern of past strikes against Iranian and Israeli naval activity carried out in a shadow war between the two adversaries. On Friday night, Israel's foreign minister, Yair Lapid, claimed he had spoken with his British colleague, Dominic Raab.

Tanker attack killed one British and one Romanian

In recent months, Iran and Israel have swapped allegations of assaulting one other's ships; and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he had warned Britain's foreign secretary that the incident, in which two crew members, one British and the other Romanian, were killed.

According to US and European intelligence officials familiar with the incident, Iran is the top suspect, as claimed by a US miltary official. Although their governments are still looking for convincing evidence, Marine Link reported.

The firm and three Israeli authorities claim an oil tanker run by an Israeli-owned shipping company was attacked off the coast of Oman on Thursday night, killing two crew members. According to two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, the attack appears to have been carried out by numerous unmanned Iranian drones that landed into living quarters beneath the ship's command center or bridge.

Per The NY Times, the strike was the latest volley in an escalating maritime shadow war between Iran and Israel; and it was the first documented attack to kill people. The two crew members who died were from the United Kingdom and Romania. The vessel traveled under the protection of an American Navy escort on Friday afternoon.

Two American Navy ships responded to a distress call but did not accompany the vessel, a US Defense Department official said. The US official acknowledged that American officials boarded the tanker to assist with a forensic examination and that many drones were engaged in the attack. Still, it was unclear how many of them hit the ship. The official made no statements on who was to blame.

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Israel-Iran's ongoing shadow war

Iran did not officially claim or deny involvement in the attack on the ship. However, a state-run television program, Al-Alam, portrayed it as a retaliation for an Israeli strike on a military base in Syria, whose regime is backed by Iranian forces. The ship's journey would have carried it across the strait between Oman and Iran, which has seen multiple attacks on private Israel-linked vessels in recent months, all of which Israeli officials blame on Iran.

Other Israeli-linked ships have been targeted in recent months as part of an ongoing shadow war with Iran, with Israeli officials blaming Iran for the attacks. Meanwhile, Israel has been implicated in a series of massive strikes aimed at Iran's nuclear program, as per Daily Mail.

Under the neighboring Gulf of Oman, Iran's biggest warship recently sank in unexplained circumstances. The incident comes as tensions over Iran's shattered nuclear deal have risen, and talks to restore the agreement have stagnated in Vienna.

A series of claimed Iranian vessel strikes began a year after then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the pact in 2018. On Thursday's incident, Iranian media cited international news reports but did not provide any further information.

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