Second drone strike in two days hits Iraq's key Basra ports

A drone has reportedly struck an oil tanker at Iraq's Umm Qasr port, marking the second drone-related incident at the country's southern ports in as many days, according to Iraqi oil and security sources.

Crude oil loading operations at all of Iraq's export terminals were temporarily suspended following the incident, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media. The incident caused no fire or damage, the sources said.

The latest report comes a day after a drone crashed at the nearby Grand Faw Port, also in Basra province.

"Local authorities were notified on Wednesday morning after a drone crashed into the port's container yard," Faw Mayor Waleed al-Sharifi told Rudaw, adding that the aircraft was "completely destroyed upon impact."

Sharifi added that the incident "caused no damage to the port's facilities and resulted in no casualties."

Umm Qasr, located near the Kuwaiti border along the Khor al-Zubair waterway, is Iraq's principal deep-water seaport. Grand Faw is situated on the al-Faw Peninsula, across a narrow marine channel from Kuwait's Bubiyan Island.

The drone incidents come amid heightened regional tensions. Kuwait has reported a series of Iranian missile and drone attacks over the past two days.

On Wednesday (July 15), Kuwait's defence ministry said Iran launched four cruise missiles and 21 drones towards its territory. A day earlier, it reported that 33 Iranian drones, one ballistic missile and five cruise missiles had been fired.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday (July 15) it had launched a new wave of attacks targeting what it described as a US military base in Kuwait, claiming to have struck its "satellite communications center, missile and air defense radar systems, Patriot air defense battery, a logistics depot, and HIMARS missile launchers."

A day earlier, the IRGC said its "navy and aerospace" units had targeted "weapons and equipment depots" used by US vessels and aircraft at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain in a "coordinated missile and drone operation." It also claimed to have struck "the deployment ramp for MQ-9s at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait," reporting damage and destruction of several aircraft.

By Aghakazim Guliyev