Experts investigating damage to a Japanese supertanker that was shaken by an apparent explosion near the Persian Gulf last month believe the ship was the target of a terrorist attack.
Inspectors at the port of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), found traces of explosives on the oil tanker, the official UAE news agency said on Friday.
The explosion occurred just after midnight on July 28 as the vessel, the M Star, headed through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway acting as a gateway to the oil-rich Gulf, separating part of Oman from Iran to the north.
PHOTO: AFP
The explosion left a large dent in the hull of the 260,000-tonne vessel and damaged corridors and sleeping quarters. One crew member was slightly injured.
“An examination carried out by specialized teams has confirmed that the tanker has been the subject of a terrorist attack,” the official WAM news agency said, quoting a UAE coastguard. “UAE explosives experts who collected and examined samples found a dent on the starboard side above the waterline and remains of homemade explosives on the hull. Probably, the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat laden with explosives.”
The report comes two days after a militant group known as the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, which has links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Qaeda has identified the area, through which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil passes, as a potential target.
The militant group claimed on jihadist Web sites that it had attacked the M Star to avenge the imprisonment in the US of Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind cleric convicted of conspiracy and bombing plots including the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
One Web site showed a photograph of the alleged bomber pointing at an image of the tanker on a laptop. The group called him a martyr and said it had waited until all of its operatives had “safely returned to base” before publicly claiming responsibility.
If the report is accurate, it would be the first time that al-Qaeda has targeted Japanese interests.
Little is known about the brigades, considered one of the more obscure al-Qaeda affiliates. It has claimed responsibility for an unsuccessful rocket attack on a US amphibious assault vessel docked at the Jordanian port of Aqaba in August 2005, and bombings that killed 98 people.
The owner of the M Star, Mitsui OSK Lines, said it could not verify the claims about the incident.
“The investigation on the tanker is still continuing,” a spokeswoman said.
Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Seiji Maehara said he had told officials to ask their UAE counterparts to establish the facts.
The explosion gave rise to several theories. Some initially claimed that the tanker had been hit by a freak wave caused by an earthquake in Iran. Mitsui OSK dismissed that theory, as well as the possibility that the ship had collided with a US submarine, insisting that it had been the target of an attack by an “external force.”
No oil leaked in the attack and yesterday the ship was given permission to continue its voyage to Chiba, Japan, carrying 2.3 million barrels of crude oil — a quantity equivalent to about half the country’s daily oil needs.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was