FEARS FOR GLOBAL SHIPPING AFTER INDIA VESSEL ATTACK
▶ ‘Cause for concern for world’ as drone launched from Iran hits New Mangalore-bound tanker
A chemical tanker was hit about 400km off the Indian coast in a drone attack launched from Iran, raising fears that attacks on commercial ships over Israel’s war in Gaza may spread beyond the Red Sea.
Repeated drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis have already disrupted a vital maritime route and prompted the formation of a US-led coalition to counter the threat.
The US military said the Japanese-owned MV Chem Pluto was hit by a drone “fired from Iran” at about 10am local time on Saturday, 370km off India’s west coast.
The Indian Coast Guard sent an escort for the ship after the attack, which caused a fire on board but no casualties, the US military said. The ship, with a crew of 20 Indians and one Vietnamese citizen, was expected to reach Mumbai today, a coastguard spokesman said.
It left Saudi Arabia on December 19 and was bound for New Mangalore in south-western India, the coastguard added. The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and was operated by a Dutch entity, the Pentagon said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian dismissed as “baseless” a White
House accusation that Tehran was helping the Houthis carry out their attacks.
“The attacks are a completely Yemeni decision in support and defence of Gaza,” he was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Security and strategic affairs expert C Uday Bhaskar told The National he feared recent attacks would have a “cascading effect” on global shipping.
“The drone and rocket attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea area, and now off the west coast of India, are cause for concern for the global community,” said Mr Bhaskar, the director of the Society for Policy Studies in New Delhi.
“The disruptive impact on the global supply chain and the trade flows of major economies will be considerable.
“This disruption will have a cascading effect. The attack on a ship bound for India is illustrative of this.”