An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, an official has told the Associated Press. The attack happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, the Middle East-based defence official said. The official spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorisation to discuss the attack publicly. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military organisation in the region monitoring shipping, told the AP: "We are aware of an incident and it's being investigated at this time." The official identified the vessel attacked as the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon.

Maamar Ali Saud Al Tobi, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the National University of Science and Technology, Muscat, Oman. His teaching and research areas include machine condition monitoring, vibration analysis, artificial intelligence, genetic algorithm, and maintenance management and strategies. He is author of numerous papers in international journals on fault diagnosis in rotating machinery using AI systems. Geraint Bevan, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in Applied Instrumentation and Control at the School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment at Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland. He is widely published on bond-graph modeling for control system design, design of automotive control systems, monitoring for nuclear safeguards, machine condition monitoring, and renewable energy.