Drone hit tanker ship off Gujarat coast was 'fired from Iran', says US Pentagon: Here's what we know so far

A suspected drone attack led to an explosion and a fire on a merchant ship with 21 Indians onboard off the Gujarat coast on Saturday morning, disrupting its power supply, Coast Guard sources said.

The Pentagon asserts that the drone that struck a chemical tanker on Saturday off the coast of Porbandar, Gujarat, in the Arabian Sea, carrying about 21 Indian crew members, was shot down from Iran. The Pentagon claimed in a statement on Sunday that the attack happened at around 10 a.m. local time and that no one was hurt on board the Japanese-owned ship. 

"The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," a Pentagon spokesperson told news agency Reuters.

The US military “remains in communication with the vessel as it continues toward a destination in India”, the statement added.

The 22-member crew and the vessel, Chem Pluto, are “safe”, they said.

The ship was on its way to New Mangalore from Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

The 21-person crew was quoted by the UKMTO as saying that everyone was safe and that an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) was the source of the attack, which resulted in an explosion and fire that cut off the ship's power supply.