Drone Strike at Egypt’s Damietta Port Raises New Security Threat Near Suez

A drone strike on gas vessels in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta signaled a potential new front in the U.S.-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 to the Red Sea. It said no party had claimed responsibility and authorities were taking measures to protect Egypt’s national security. Trading sources familiar with the incident said the drone hit U.S.-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to another vessel. Overnight, the U.S. military said it struck dozens of targets in Iran after Tehran fired at U.S. forces in the region. U.S. Central Command said it carried out a two-hour operation launched at midnight targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ military command centers and drone facilities, aiming “to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries.” Iran’s state media reported that three people were killed in U.S. strikes on Qeshm Island. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pledged to retaliate. “With the help of God, the aggressor will be punished today,” it said, according to a statement carried by state media. An Iranian attack on Thursday hit a building belonging to a Chinese company in northern Kuwait, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage, Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said. Jordan’s armed forces said they had thwarted a new Iranian attempt to target the kingdom, intercepting five missiles. On Wednesday, Iran also fired ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan, which have lately become primary Iranian targets. Saudis Join US Strikes In a first in the five-month war, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday publicly joined strikes alongside U.S. forces, targeting Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched from Iraq. After the joint attacks, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister met Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Wednesday to urge the Trump administration not to escalate the conflict further, two sources told Reuters. The war began in February, when the U.S. and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that President Donald Trump said would last only a few weeks. A temporary ceasefire agreement in June collapsed amid renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that Iran says it now controls. 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. Trump said he would hit Iran hard for firing missiles at U.S. forces, but that Washington was also still seeking a peace deal to end a conflict that has roiled global energy and finance markets. Oil prices rose for a second day on the renewed fighting, before paring some gains with benchmark Brent crude trading around the $90 mark. Iran Controls Crucial Shipping Waterway Iran said on Wednesday that it struck three tankers attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz along an unauthorized route. However, a QatarEnergy-controlled liquefied natural gas tanker exited the strait overnight, the first such vessel recorded by ship-tracking data leaving the waterway since July 11. Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars said Tehran had given its permission for the tanker to pass. Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. But Iran rejected the Omani proposal on Wednesday. After the war exposed gaps in Iran’s ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure, Tehran was expected to receive within weeks a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters. Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, while China’s Foreign Ministry denied the report. (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Andrei Khalip; editing by Ros Russell)