Symbolic imageTwo gas tankers burn at Egypt's Damietta port after apparent drone strike
A fire at the Mediterranean port of Damietta set two gas processing and storage vessels alight, one of them a US-owned tanker. Egypt's petroleum ministry confirmed the blaze but named no cause, while maritime security firms and security sources described a drone strike. Washington threatened Iran with immediate retaliation, pulling Egyptian territory into the exchange of strikes for the first time.
What happened
An explosion and fire hit the port of Damietta on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources confirmed that two gas processing and storage vessels were on fire, gave no cause for the incident and made no mention of an attack. Maritime tracking firms cited by the New York Times said the explosion set both ships alight, one of them a US-owned gas storage tanker. The British maritime security company Ambrey, quoted by Reuters, said a drone of unknown origin struck the US-owned LNG vessel; the Jerusalem Post attributed the same account to security sources. No party has claimed the strike in any of the available sources. US President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had been briefed and that Washington would answer: "We're going to be hitting them very hard, because it's our turn to hit them."
The view from outside
The Serbian state-affiliated daily Politika led with the US threat rather than the damage in Egypt, presenting Damietta as the trigger for the next round of American strikes. It placed the episode alongside Washington's push for economic pressure, reporting that Trump wants congressional authority for secondary tariffs on Iran modelled on the measures being prepared against Russia.
What could happen next
The strike extends the current exchange of attacks to a country that had not been hit before, and to commercial gas infrastructure in the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt has so far committed only to the fact of the fire, so the cause remains officially open and an Egyptian account of what struck the vessels is the next thing to watch. Washington has tied the incident to both military retaliation against Iran and tariff legislation: the Senate bill would impose 100 percent tariffs on the five largest buyers of Russian energy, tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian imports, sanctions on the Russian central bank, Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank, and a ban on Russian uranium including Rosatom products, with a vote expected by 6 August before the summer recess. Trump said the same secondary-tariff logic should be applied to states linked to Iran.
United States: Washington treats the burning tanker as an attack on US property and says it will strike back hard, while also seeking congressional authority for secondary tariffs on Iran.
Egypt: Cairo confirms only that two gas processing and storage vessels caught fire at Damietta and names no cause or attacker.
Also involved