
Pentagon investigative team says Iran was behind attack on Mercer Street tanker
CNN
A US Defense Department expert team concluded that the drone behind the deadly attack on the Mercer Street commercial vessel was produced in Iran, US Central Command said in a statement Friday.
The statement said that the investigative team dispatched to the vessel from the USS Ronald Reagan found that the ship off the coast of Oman was targeted on July 30 by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) "loaded with a military-grade explosive." The attack killed two on board the vessel. "The use of Iranian designed and produced one way attack 'kamikaze' UAVs is a growing trend in the region," an executive summary included in an accompanying report said. "They are actively used by Iran and their proxies against coalition forces in the region, to include targets in Saudi Arabia and Iraq."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.











