# Japanese Tanker Attacked Near the Strait of Hormuz



## tomahawk6 (28 Jul 2010)

My money is on the IRG.




> The Japanese supertanker M. STAR carrying 270,000 tons of oil was damaged by an explosion Wednesday, July 28, caused by a suspected attack in Omani territorial waters near the  Strait of Hormuz, which passes Iran and Oman. One lifeboat was blown off the ship and a hole driven in its starboard hatches. A crew member was slightly injured, but there was no oil leak.
> The spokesperson for the tanker's owners Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd said: "We believe it's highly likely an attack from the outside, maybe a terrorist incident. There is nothing that could cause a spontaneous explosion in that part of the vessel."
> But the most striking feature of the incident, noted by debkafile's military and intelligence sources, is the unusual degree of assent between US Navy and Iranian officials that the damage to the supertanker was caused by an explosion by an unknown hand.
> 
> ...


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## dapaterson (28 Jul 2010)

Attempting to cut off Japan's supply of oil and raw materials?

There's no possible way that can end well...


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## GK .Dundas (28 Jul 2010)

dapaterson said:
			
		

> Attempting to cut off Japan's supply of oil and raw materials?
> 
> There's no possible way that can end well...


 Oh I don't know look what happen the last.....................yeah bad example. never mind  :-X


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## RickG (28 Jul 2010)

Here's the latest I've read on this from BBC News.  It's a little early in the reporting cycle to get any accurate info...

*Freak wave hits Japanese oil tanker near Oman*

BBC News Middle East
28 July 2010 Last updated at 11:43 ET

A Japanese oil tanker has been damaged in an incident in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman, injuring crew members.

An early report from the Japanese transport ministry said there had been an explosion on board the ship which could have been an attack.

But a port official in the United Arab Emirates says the vessel was hit by a freak wave, triggered by a small earthquake.

There are no reports of any oil leaking from the tanker, the M Star.

The vessel, with 16 Filipino and 15 Indian crew members on board, had been bound for Chiba port near Tokyo when the incident occurred.
Earthquake report

Several of the crew were injured in the incident, according to an official at the port of Fujairah in the UAE, where the ship was due to dock to have its damage assessed.

"The cause of the incident was a freak wave and there is damage in the upper accommodation decks of the ship and a few injured people on board," he told Reuters news agency.

"The ship is not being tugged and there is no damage to the engine."

Oman's coastguard cited "a tremor" as the cause of the incident. A seismologist in nearby Iran said an earthquake of magnitude 3.4 happened in Bandar Abbas.

Captains of other ships near the incident also mentioned the earthquake, Attollah Sadr, head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.

The Strait of Hormuz links the ports of oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with export markets. About 40% of the world's traded oil passes through it.

The M Star was loaded with some two million barrels of crude oil when the incident occurred, said Japan's Mitsui OSK, which owns and operates the vessel.

Earlier, Japan's transport ministry issued a statement saying an "explosion" had occurred at around 0030 local time (2030 GMT).

"A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so ship owner Mitsui OSK believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack," the ministry had said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10786215


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## tomahawk6 (6 Aug 2010)

It will take alot of explosives to sink a supertanker.


Attack has been confirmed.

Images.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Japanese-tanker-damaged-Persian-Gulf/ss/events/wl/073010japaneseboat#photoViewer=/100806/photos_wl_pc_afp/ffef413b6730e4809a386529cb542437

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates said Friday that a Japanese oil tanker was hit by an explosives-laden dinghy in the Persian Gulf in what would be the first attack in the strategic waterway where millions of barrels of oil are transported each day.

The report — which came days after an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for attacking the vessel — raised fears about the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for many petroleum exporting countries.

It was the latest in what has been a series of conflicting accounts of what happened to the M. Star supertanker, which was damaged as it entered the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for about 40 percent of oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

Al-Qaida has carried out attacks on oil infrastructure on land in nearby Saudi Arabia, as well as a 2002 suicide bombing of the Limburg off the coast of Yemen and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

But if the UAE report is confirmed, the July 28 incident would be the first militant attack in the strait, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran. For years, fears have been high that the waterway could be the site of conflict between the United States and Iran, but the reported attack underscored concerns that militant groups could target civilian vessels to foment economic instability.

While the ship's owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, initially said it suspected an attack, others said it was hit by a large wave or was involved in a collision with another vessel. A crew member was injured and the tanker sustained a square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull.

"The attack is not a major attack in terms of its target. But the geography is really worrying," said Mustafa Alani, director of national security and terrorism studies for the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "Now, they are able to attack outside the Strait of Hormuz where 17 million barrels of oil a day are transported. The fact that they are able to do this is a wake up call."

The Emirati state news agency WAM said Friday that a boat piled with explosives struck the tanker â€” the first official word that the incident was an attack.

WAM, quoting an unnamed government official, said traces of homemade explosives were found on the hull of the tanker. Investigators believe a small boat with explosives had approached the tanker, indicating the vessel had been "subjected to a terror attack," the news agency said.

On Wednesday, a group known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it had carried out a suicide attack against the tanker to avenge the plunder of Muslim wealth and to destabilize international markets. The statement was issued by al-Qaida's communications wing, the al-Fajr Media Center and posted on militant websites.

It included a photo of the purported suicide bomber pointing to a photograph of a tanker on a laptop. It said it had delayed the announcement until several group members involved in the operation "returned safely to base."

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades has in the past claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the August 2005 firing of Katyusha rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at Jordan's Aqaba Red Sea resort but killed a Jordanian soldier.

The group also has claimed it was behind the July and October 2004 bombings at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik and two other resorts that killed a total of 98 people.

Abdullah Azzam Brigades operates under the al-Qaida umbrella but consists of different cells that are not directly controlled by the terror network, according to Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism analyst with New York-based security consultancy Flashpoint Global Partners. He said the network has long talked of attacking "the economic lifelines and infrastructure in this region."

"They have gone from rocket attacks in Lebanon and now moved into a suicide, boat bombings attack on an oil tanker," Kohlmann said. "It's an escalation. It may not be the most sophisticated attack we have ever seen. But it is an escalation."

He said the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has called for attacks in the Persian Gulf at least four times in the past six months, including mentions in its magazine as well as in .

Kamran Bokhari, an analyst with STRATFOR, a private security think tank in Austin, Texas, said he remained unconvinced that it was a terrorist attack, in part because of the cautious Japanese response. "It's not clear at all this is an attack and thus far it is a mysterious event," he said.

Japan's Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said Friday he has instructed diplomatic channels to confirm WAM's report with Emirati officials. Japan's official in charge of maritime safety, Hiroaki Sakashita, said the ministry has collected evidence and samples, including residue left on affected parts of the tanker for its own independent investigation. 

"First we will analyze everything we obtained before making any judgment," Sakashita said. 

Lt. John Fage, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said Friday that a team of Navy divers had examined the ship. But he had no further information on the UAE claims. 

The 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. WAM reported that the vessel left the Emirati port of Fujairah on Friday after damages to the hull were repaired.


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