Drone Strike Hits Two Ships at Egypt's Damietta Port — First Attack on Egyptian Soil Since Iran War Began

A drone strike ignited fires on two vessels at Egypt's Damietta port on the Mediterranean on July 29, 2026, including the US-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged LNG storage vessel Energos Winter and a nearby tanker, the GasLog Salem. No deaths or injuries were reported; both crews were evacuated safely and the vessels moved offshore. Egyptian authorities initially attributed the fire to an engine-room blaze, but the cabinet reversed course on July 30, confirming after preliminary investigation that the incident was caused by at least two drones that penetrated multiple layers of Egyptian air defenses. No group claimed responsibility; Iran's Foreign Ministry and Yemen's Houthi movement both denied involvement, though two Iranian officials reportedly told the New York Times the strike was meant to signal that global shipping and energy infrastructure could face disruption amid the widening US-Iran war. The strike came hours after US-Saudi strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and two days after Iranian state TV had floated Damietta as a possible retaliation target. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi warned of the 'danger of regional escalation' and called for international cooperation to halt it; Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi oversaw the port response. The attack marked the first strike on Egyptian territory since the US-Israel campaign against Iran began in February 2026, raising new shipping-risk concerns for traffic approaching the Suez Canal.