ByTZVI JOFFRE

Iranian air defenses fired a warning shot at a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper belonging to the US military near the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian border on Thursday, according to the Iranian semi-official Nour News.

 

The news outlet published what it said was footage of the control room as the warning shot was fired.

Independent news source Aurora Intel discovered that the clip shared by Nour News had aired on Iranian television on Wednesday, raising questions when the incident actually took place.

 
In 2019, Iran downed a US drone over the Strait of Hormuz and in a separate incident attempted to down a MQ-9 Reaper during an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The report comes as tensions remain high in the region after two Iranian attacks on commercial vessels near the Arabian peninsula and just a day after an explosion was reported on a tanker used to carry Iranian oil to Syria.

Syrian media reported an explosion and fire on a ship undergoing maintenance at the port in Latakia on Tuesday.

TankerTrackers.com, an online service that tracks and reports shipments and storage of crude oil, identified the vessel as the WISDOM, saying that the tanker had recently relocated in the port to make room for the Iranian oil tanker SAM 121.

The WISDOM has been used to transfer Iranian oil from Iranian tankers, including the SAM 121, to Syria in the past, according to TankerTrackers.com. The WISDOM has experienced two other fires this year, with the first fire initially attributed to a drone attack, although Iranian media later denied this, saying that the fire had been caused by a welding accident.

In July, an Iranian drone strike targeted an Israeli-managed Mercer Street ship off the coast of Oman, killing a British citizen and a Romanian citizen. The United States, the United Kingdom and Israel have all threatened retaliation and the attack has garnered international condemnation of Iran.

Iran has denied being responsible for the attack and claimed Israel and there US are attempting to destabilize the region, but on Saturday US Central Command (CENTCOM) released evidence that the drones used in the attack were Iranian-made.

Less than a week after the attack on the Mercer Street, Iranian forces reportedly attempted to hijack the Asphalt Princess tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, but fled the ship after workers sabotaged the engines, according to the British daily The Times.

In recent years, Israel and Iran have reportedly targeted each other's maritime vessels on dozens of occasions.

In March, The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv reported that dozens of Iranian ships had been attacked by Israel throughout the Middle East, after The Wall Street Journal reported that a dozen Iranian oil tankers headed to Syria had been attacked by Israel.