US warns Israeli shipping in Gulf and Indian Ocean face Iranian drone attack
All Israel vessels sailing in the Gulf and Indian Ocean were issued on Saturday, April 8 with a “credible warning” by the US 5th Fleet command in Bahrain of a coming Iranian suicide drone attack. It was based on intelligence that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards air wing was gearing up to target all Israeli shipping in the two waters. Until now, only indirectly-owned Israel vessels have come under Iranian attack.
A political commentator close to the Guards explained that the drone assault would be coming in response for Israeli air and missile strikes on Iranian forces in Syria.
In another report, US military sources disclosed on Sunday that the USS Florida nuclear submarine (see photo) carrying 150 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles was to be deployed to the Red Sea. The next day, those sources revealed that the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier had on Friday passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea. On Saturday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant talked with his American counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, following which the Pentagon announced the transfer of a squadron of A-10 strike aircraft to the Mediterranean.
As a precaution against the Iranian threat, Israeli ships were advised to silence their transponders so as not to betray their exact locations and to keep to courses hugging as close as possible to the shores of Oman and Saudi Arabia.
