NEW DELHI: Iran on Monday rejected US allegations that its drone targeted an India-bound tanker off the
Gujarat coast
that set off a
fire on crude carrier
MV Chem Pluto with 21
Indians
and one Vietnamese crew on board on Saturday, calling Washington’s claims “worthless” even as the attacked ship reached outside Mumbai port on Monday.
A naval spokesperson said
Indian Navy
’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, which inspected the vessel on its arrival off the Mumbai coast, made an assessment of the type and nature of the attack. The preliminary investigation pointed towards a
drone attack
. However, further “forensic and technical analysis will be required to establish the vector of attack, including type and amount of explosive used”, the Navy said.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said, “We declare these claims as completely rejected and worthless. Such claims are aimed at projecting, distracting public attention, and covering up for the full support of American government for the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) in Gaza.”
Soon after the attack on the ship on Saturday, a Pentagon spokesperson was quoted by foreign news agencies as saying, “The motor vessel Chem Pluto, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker, was struck...by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” 200 nautical miles off the coast of India.
Saturday’s targeting of the tanker MV Chem Pluto came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Soon after the attack, another
India-bound ship
MV Sai Baba with 25 Indians on board came under another drone attack and it then sent a distress call to a US destroyer on Saturday, the US Central Command said on Sunday.
English (US) ·