Pentagon investigative team says Iran was behind attack on Mercer Street tanker | CNN Politics

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A US Defense Department knowledgeable team concluded that the drone behind the deadly attack on the Mercer Street industrial vessel was produced in Iran, US Central Command stated in a press release Friday.

The assertion stated that the investigative team dispatched to the vessel from the USS Ronald Reagan discovered that the ship off the coast of Oman was focused on July 30 by an unmanned aerial car (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 government abstract included in an accompanying report stated. “They are actively used by Iran and their proxies against coalition forces in the region, to include targets in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.”

The investigation discovered that the ship was focused by two different unsuccessful UAV assaults on July 29.

The July 30 attack “required calculated and deliberate retargeting of M/T MERCER STREET by Iran,” the report stated.

The assertion from CENTCOM stated that after the on-scene evaluation “some of the material was transferred to U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain and subsequently to a U.S. national laboratory for further testing and verification.” British specialists “were provided access to the evidence at the Fifth Fleet headquarters” and “evidence was shared virtually with Israeli explosive experts.”

“Both partners concurred with the U.S. findings,” the assertion stated.

The launch of the findings by the Pentagon follows a press release of condemnation from the G7 Foreign Ministers blaming Iran for the attack.

“All available evidence clearly points to Iran. There is no justification for this attack,” the joint assertion Friday stated.

This story is breaking and will probably be up to date.

CNN’s Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report