{"id":41227,"date":"2026-07-31T15:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41227"},"modified":"2026-07-31T15:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:30:56","slug":"drone-strike-at-egypt-port-near-suez-canal-ignites-new-shipping-risks","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drone-strike-at-egypt-port-near-suez-canal-ignites-new-shipping-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone strike at Egypt port near Suez Canal ignites new shipping risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A drone strike that sparked fires on two gas vessels in Egypt&#8217;s Mediterranean \u200cport of Damietta has raised a new threat to shipping through the Suez Canal, one of the last major export routes available to Saudi oil amid the expanding United States (US) and Iran war.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>No one has claimed responsibility for what Egypt&#8217;s cabinet said on Thursday was an unidentified drone that caused a fire on two vessels at Damietta a day earlier.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The port lies near the Suez \u200bCanal, which links the Mediterranean and Red Seas.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The drone hit the US-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to \u200ba second vessel, people familiar with the incident said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Iran has denied any involvement in the Damietta strike.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Egypt is an important \u2060friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us,&#8221; Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on social media. &#8220;We must all \u200bbe vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The five-month-old war has already brought shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a slender \u200bchokepoint in the global energy trade, to a virtual standstill.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13272,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-41227","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"A drone strike that sparked fires on two gas vessels in Egypt's Mediterranean \u200cport","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41228,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41227\/revisions\/41228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}