Posted on 08/05/2010 4:58:37 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
TOKYO (AFP) – Militant jihadists have claimed that a suicide bomber blew himself up on a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week, the US monitoring group SITE said.
Mitsui OSK Lines had previously reported that one of its tankers, the M Star, appeared to have been hit by an explosion July 28 in the waterway between Iran and Oman.
SITE 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.
It said 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 Muslim 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."
Japan said Wednesday it was investigating the facts about the statement.
"We know that a criminal declaration was uploaded on an Internet site, but at this point, it's unclear whether it is true or not," the foreign ministry's press secretary Kazuo Kodama told reporters.
"The tanker is docked at a port in the United Arab Emirates. We will continue our investigation into the case," Kodama said without elaborating.
Mitsui OSK Lines' spokeswoman said: "We are investigating the facts about the case, but we don't have fresh information in Tokyo."
The shipping company had said that crew members saw a flash and heard an explosion in the incident shortly after midnight local time a week ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In a society where males are allowd to have multiple wives, while the distribution of male/femal is roughly 50-50, the males who cannot mate are expended as warriors whose lives are meaningless, except in perpetrating suicidal acts of violence in hope of a better afterlife.
MoHamHead may have been a cruel, bloody savage and a genocidal lunatic, but he was clever.
Islamists attacked by giant fighting robots, huge tentacle monsters, and Godzilla in 5. 4. 3. 2. ...
Pictures of the tanker I saw a few days back showed a very large indentation on the outside of the ships hull. Explosions can do funny things things to structures, but from what I saw, the bomber would have had to have jumped overboard and detonated the bomb just as he hit the water.
Maybe he was pushed by an alert crewman? Sounds like it would make an interesting tv episode.
If the Saudis were smart, and they’re pretty smart, they would be laying pipe and building facilities to establish an oil terminal at Salalah in Oman. That way, when the Iranians close Hormuz, they will be the only game in town.
It could be that the suicide bomber attacked in a small boat, as with the USS Cole.
I think they failed dramatically, the image I saw was just a big dent in the hull.
......I think they failed dramatically.....
The action was by Iran. The suicide bomber is just a claim for fame.
You did not look up the change in inurance rates for transiting Hormuz and therefore can’t really say it is fail.
Iran dare not sink a Japanese tanker but can and did fire a shot across the bow. The cowardly attack was a message.
Cease the sanctions or we will close Hormuz
What is your read on the attempted assassination of Akmadinyjad in Tehran a few days ago by a roadside bomb? My theory is his regime staged the event.
You have a very valid point there and I think that it may have some validity. The explosion was meant to do just what it did.
Regarding sanctions...
There was a FR thread associated with the following but I lost it.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gasoline-shortage-in-iran-threatens-regime/2/
They detonated to far from the target.
There is a entry technique that uses an IV bag full of water hanging from the door knob.... kind of looks like that on a steel door¿?
Premature detonation!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3931179,00.html
(REUTERS)
“Attack on Japan tanker called terrorist attack”
Published: 08.06.10, 10:32 / Israel News
SNIPPET: “Investigators probing a reported blast on a Japanese supertanker near the Strait of Hormuz last week found remains of homemade explosives and have blamed the incident on a “terrorist attack”, the United Arab Emirates state news agency reported on Friday.”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TKG006817.htm
“Japan wants UAE to check facts on tanker - media”
06 Aug 2010 10:04:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
SNIPPET: “TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara on Friday instructed his ministry to ask the United Arab Emirates to check the facts on a Japanese supertanker damaged near the Strait of Hormuz last week, Kyodo news agency reported.”
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