Pentagon: The Drone That Attacked the Ship "Launched from Iran"

The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) stated that a drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean on Saturday. A Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters, "The Kim Pluto, a Liberia-flagged chemical tanker owned by Japan and operated by the Netherlands, was attacked at around 10:00 AM local time (6:00 AM GMT) (on Saturday) in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles off the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone launched from Iran." The incident highlights the escalating regional tensions and new risks threatening maritime routes following the attack by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel. The Pentagon statement noted that this is "the seventh Iranian attack on commercial vessels since 2021." There were no casualties from the attack, and a fire that briefly broke out aboard the tanker was extinguished. A spokesperson for the Iranian delegation at the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.