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| Arabia |
| Qaeda group claims supertanker attack: report |
| 2010-08-05 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed that a boomer from its organization was responsible for an attack on a Japanese supertanker last Wednesday near the Strait of Hormuz. "Last Wednesday, after midnight, the martyrdom-seeking hero Ayyub al-Taishan ... blew himself up in the Japanese tanker M Star in the Strait of Hormuz between the United Arab Emirates and Oman," the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website used by Boskonians. Mitsui OSK Lines had previously reported that its tanker the M Star appeared to have been hit by a kaboom July 28 in the waterway between Iran and Oman. The U.S. monitoring group SITE said the statement claimed the attack 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 attack sought "to weaken the infidel global order which is thrust unto Mohammedan lands and which loots its resources," the brigade said, according to SITE. "We delayed the publication of the statement until our heroes returned safely to their bases." Mitsui OSK Lines officials had said crew members saw a flash and heard a kaboom in the incident shortly after midnight local time a week ago. One crewman was slightly injured in the explosion, which caused minor damage to the ship, including an indentation several meters across in the hull, according to pictures published by state-run UAE news agency WAM. Mitsui had dismissed reports it might have been hit by a freak wave. The Japan-bound vessel -- crewed by 16 Filipinos and 15 Indians -- was carrying 270,000 tons of crude oil but did not suffer a spill. One of the crew saw a flash on the horizon, while several other sailors heard a kaboom. Other crew members said that the weather was fine and there were no reports of high waves in the region. The ship arrived under its own steam in United Arab Emirates for repairs, and an investigation into the incident was launched. Attacks claimed by the Azzam Brigades include deadly bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005 and the firing of rockets which missed two U.S. warships in Jordan's Aqaba port the same year. A statement last year signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Azzam Brigades took credit for firing two rockets into northern Israel. The group claimed that Wednesday's attack was a blow to the global economy and the oil market and that those who have offered other explanations for the incident, which have ranged from a freak wave to an internal explosion, are trying to cover up the operation. The oil market ignored the incident last Wednesday, with oil prices easing in response to news that U.S. oil inventories had risen. Traffic near the busy Strait was not disrupted and the tanker diverted to a UAE port where it is being examined. "They could be claiming this to try to get the global spotlight to seem bigger than they really are," said Theodore Karasik, a security analyst at Dubai-based group INEGMA. Azzam Brigades, believed to be an al-Qaeda-linked group in the Levant and Egypt, has previously taken responsibility for attacks that other groups have claimed. Karasik noted that the timing of the claim -- a day after deadly clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border and two days after rocket fire on Israeli and Jordanian Red Sea port thriving towns -- might be an effort to raise tensions further in the region. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Typical, "sieze the moment," since no one knows what really happened. I think it's pretty obvious though it wasn't the Al Queda schmucks. |
| Posted by: miscellaneous 2010-08-05 00:54 |
| #1 Seems to me the photo showed the hull bent inward from the waterline up. Hard to do if you are a passenger. |
| Posted by: Spearong Prince of the Bunions9034 2010-08-05 00:45 |