Japanese oil tanker attack

[Jigs]

Friday, August 6, 2010
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Associated Press


An explosive-laden dinghy had struck a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf last month, the Emirati state news agency said Friday, in the first official confirmation that the incident was an attack.

The report came after an obscure al-Qaeda-linked group said Wednesday one of its suicide bombers had hit the tanker to avenge the plunder of Muslim wealth. If true, the claim by the little-known Brigades of Abdullah Azzam would mark the first time the terror network has attacked the Japanese.

Emirates' WAM news agency on Friday quoted an unnamed government official as saying the investigation revealed traces of homemade explosives on the hull of the tanker. WAM said investigators believe a small boat with explosives had approached the tanker. It said the explosives find "indicates the tanker was subjected to a terror attack."

A crew member was injured and the vessel sustained a square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull during the incident. The Marshall Islands-flagged ship, loaded with 270,000 tons of oil, was heading from the petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the Japanese port of Chiba outside Tokyo.

 

[GUNNER]

Terror Blast Hits Japanese Tanker In Gulf Strait

DUBAI, Aug 6, 2010 (AFP) - An explosives-laden boat carried out a "terrorist attack" that damaged a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, the United Arab Emirates said on Friday, raising security fears for the vital waterway.

"The investigation and examination conducted by special teams have shown the tanker was attacked with explosives, prepared using traditional methods, which were loaded on a boat that approached the ship," a UAE coastguard spokesman said on the official WAM news agency.

"UAE explosives experts... found a dent on the starboard side above the water line and remains of home-made explosives on the hull," when they inspected the ship off the UAE port of Fujairah, the official said.

"Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives," he was quoted as saying on the agency's English-language website.
In Tokyo, Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said he had instructed ministry officials to ask the UAE authorities for details of the investigation, as requested by the prime minister.

"Without prejudgment, we will carry out our analysis on the cause of the incident," Maehara was quoted as saying by Jiji Press.

Japan "should take a firm stance" in response to such incidents because they threaten the country's oil imports, the minister added.

The world's second largest economy sources some 90 percent of its oil from the Middle East, much of it from the Gulf, where the tanker was sailing from.

Jihadists on Tuesday claimed a suicide bomber had struck the ship owned by Mitsui OSK Lines, which reported that tanker the M Star appeared to have been hit by a blast on July 28 in international waters between Iran and Oman.

US monitoring group SITE Intelligence said the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam claimed in a message on jihadist websites that it had placed a suicide bomber on the tanker, identifying him as Ayyub al-Taishan.

The little-known group with links to Al-Qaeda last October claimed responsibility for a rocket salvo into northern Israel from Lebanon, as well as for bombings in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and two other resorts in 2004 that killed a total of 98 people.

It said the attack on the tanker was carried out in the name of Omar Abdul Rahman, the Egyptian "Blind Sheikh" imprisoned in the United States for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.

The tanker attack sought "to weaken the infidel global order which is thrust unto Muslim lands and which loots its resources," the group said, according to SITE.

The militants said that because of the potential effect of this attack on oil prices and the global economy, "the enemies of Allah concealed the reality of the operation."

Mitsui OSK maintained the damage was caused in an attack despite reports that it had been caused by a freak wave.

The Japanese shipping firm said crew members saw a flash and heard an explosion shortly after midnight.

One crewman was slightly wounded in the blast, which caused minor damage to the vessel, including an indentation several metres (yards) across its hull, according to pictures published by WAM.

The Japan-bound vessel -- crewed by 16 Filipinos and 15 Indians -- was carrying 270,000 tonnes of crude oil from the Gulf but did not suffer a spill.

It arrived under its own steam to Fujairah for repairs, where an investigation into the incident was launched.

The UAE coastguard spokesman said the tanker left Fujairah on Friday after the repairs were completed.

The Strait of Hormuz, which separates Oman from Iran and is the gateway to the oil-rich Gulf, is particularly vulnerable because of its maximum width of around 50 kilometres (31 miles).

The Bahrain-based US Navy Fifth Fleet said the strategically important waterway, through which an estimated 40 percent of global oil exports passes, remained open on the day of the reported explosion.

 

[GUNNER]

The Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, Aug 6, 2010 - The Strait of Hormuz, where a Japanese oil tanker was reportedly attacked last week, is a strategically important waterway through which 40 percent of the world's oil transits.

The United Arab Emirates, where the ship docked for repairs, said on Friday an explosives-laden boat had carried out a "terrorist attack" that damaged the tanker in the strait on July 28.

The strait links the Gulf, bordered by petroleum-rich states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Oman.

The narrow corridor is particularly vulnerable because it has a maximum width of around 50 kilometres (31 miles) and a maximum depth of 60 metres (198 feet).

The Strait of Hormuz is dotted with little-inhabited desert islands, which are nevertheless strategically important, notably the Iranian islands of Hormuz and Qeshm and Hengam off Bandar Abbas.

Oman's Musandam Peninsula juts out to the Strait of Hormuz towards Iran, separated from the rest of the sultanate by land belonging to the UAE.

With their back to the UAE coast, the three strategic and disputed islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa serve as observation posts on all Gulf States: the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran.

Iran under the Western-backed shah gained control of the islands in 1971, as Britain granted independence to its Gulf protectorates and withdrew its forces.

Abu Musa, the only inhabited island of the three, was placed under joint administration in a deal with Sharjah, now part of the UAE.

But the UAE says the Iranians have since taken control of all access to the strategic island and installed an airport and military base there.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the ideological army of the Iranian regime, controls naval operations in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

In the event of war the Islamic republic could block access to the oil-rich region, according to a US intelligence report published in late 2009.

 

[no_name]

That's a bit random, what has Japan ever done to them? Or are they starting to target US friendly allies? It seems like an irrational move.

 

[FreekiN]

That's a bit random, what has Japan ever done to them? Or are they starting to target US friendly allies? It seems like an irrational move.

Their entire existence is irrational.

 

[no_name]

I feel they were more organised when Bin Laden was visible, now they are like anti-social teenagers made worse a million times

 

[Agito]

What a stupid excuse for an attack.

 

[NWO]

Nation & World | Damage to Japanese oil tanker linked to terrorist attack | Seattle Times Newspaper

WASHINGTON — Investigators in United Arab Emirates said Friday a terrorist attack caused the mysterious damage to a Japanese oil tanker last week as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears of more attacks in the narrow channel that serves as a passageway for shipping crude oil from the Middle East to the rest of the world.

The damage to the tanker — which an Emirati official said was caused by "homemade explosives" aboard a dinghy — was not considered serious, and there was little immediate impact on oil markets Friday.

But the news instantly fanned worries about shipping security. If confirmed, the attack would be the first of its kind in the volatile strait, which long has been a focal point for tensions with Iran, just across the water from the Arabian Peninsula.

About 17 million barrels of oil a day pass through the strait, close to 40 percent of the oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

The account of the attack came in a report published Friday by the state-run Emirates news agency WAM, from an Emirati coast guard official.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a militant group with ties to al-Qaida, claimed this week it had carried out a suicide attack against the tanker, the M. Star.

U.S. officials Friday would not confirm the episode was a terrorist attack, but one intelligence official said the damage to the tanker — a large square dent on the hull's port side — was "from an external explosion." The official said it remained unclear whether the group taking responsibility for bombing the tanker was involved.