Israel blames Iran for attack on oil tanker off Omanian coast

Two officials—a Briton and a Romanian have been killed when an Israeli-managed petroleum product tanker came under attack off the coast of Oman, in an incident, that Israel's foreign minister blamed on Iran and said warranted a punitive response.

There were varying clarifications for what happened on Thursday to the Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned ship, with Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime describing the incident as "suspected piracy" and a source at the Oman Maritime Security Center as an accident that occurred outside Omani territorial waters.

Iran and Israel have traded blame for attacking each other's vessels in recent months and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he had told Britain's foreign secretary of the need for a tough response to the incident in which two crew members, one British and the other Romanian, were killed.

"Iran is not just an Israeli problem, but an exporter of terrorism, destruction and instability that harms us all. The world must not be silent in the face of Iranian terrorism that also harms freedom of shipping," Mr Lapid said in a statement.

US and European sources familiar with intelligence reporting said Iran was their leading suspect for the incident, which a US defence official said appeared to have been carried out by a drone, but stressed their governments were seeking conclusive evidence.

The Iranian government's Arabic-language television network mentioned anonymous sources as saying the attack on the ship came in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on Dabaa airport in Syria.

The Israeli news website said the assessment in Israel was that there were two attacks on the ship, spaced several hours apart.

The first caused no damage, and the second hit the bridge, causing the casualties.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides maritime security information, said the attack was not piracy.

The vessel was about 280 km northeast of the Omani port of Duqm when it was attacked, it said.

According to a ship-tracking, the medium-size tanker was headed for Fujairah, a bunkering port and oil terminal in the United Arab Emirates, from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.