Illustrative: An MSC cargo ship, carrying containers, including some from the United Arab Emirates, docks as its cargo is unloaded at Haifa’s port, northern Israel October 12, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

i24 News – A “senior Israeli official” on Friday accused Iran of being behind the “criminal terrorist attack” against an Israeli-managed ship off Oman coast, the Hebrew-language Ynet website reported.

Two crew members died in the drone strike against the Japanese-owned Mercer Street vessel, which was sailing in the Arabian Sea under the Liberian flag. The ship was managed, however, by the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a company that is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.

The tanker was back under the control of its crew, and was steaming to an undisclosed “safe location” under US naval escort, the Zodiac Group said.

“The Romanian fatality was apparently the captain of the ship, and the Briton a security man. The Iranians struck the ship’s body using an unmanned aerial vehicle,” the Israeli official said.

Referring to the so-called “shadow war” between Israel and Iran, the unnamed official told Ynet that there could be no equivalence between the respective actions of the countries.

“There is no symmetry between the countries and it shouldn’t be presented as such. What the Iranians are doing is a criminal act of terrorism. We don’t do terrorist attacks. The actions taken by Israel are in accordance with all the rules, and are aimed against terrorists.”

The official said that the ship’s tenuous link to Israel reflects the “partial” intelligence obtained by Iran.