An oil tanker leased to state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile on Wednesday in Qatari waters, the defense ministry said.
Qatar was targeted by three cruise missiles coming from Iran. Two were intercepted while the third hit the Aqua 1 fuel oil tanker, but caused no casualties.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they had targeted the oil tanker because of what they said were its ties with Israel.
“Aqua One was precisely targeted in the central region of the Persian Gulf in a missile battle,” state media quoted the IRGC as saying.
The vessel, located 17 nautical miles (31 km) north of Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial hub, the site of the world’s largest gas plant, sustained damage above the waterline but no environmental impact was reported, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and QatarEnergy said.
Threats to maritime traffic are growing as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran intensifies across the region.
Iran has aimed a series of attacks at Gulf oil and gas facilities following Israeli attacks on its own gas infrastructure. The war has knocked out 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, threatening supplies to Europe and Asia.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray; editing by Lincoln Feast, Philippa Fletcher and Ros Russell)
