Al-Qaida-Linked Group Claims Tanker Attack in Gulf

An obscure al-Qaida-linked group said Wednesday one of its suicide bombers attacked a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf last week —if true, would be the first time the terror network has attacked the Japanese.



There have been conflicting reports about what happened to the M. STAR supertanker, which was damaged July 28 in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and an enclave of Oman surrounded by the United Arab Emirates.



Initial thoughts on what caused the damage led to multiple speculations: a rogue wave, an explosion, a collision, or an attack. An investigation into the cause of the damage is still ongoing.



The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam posted a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for attacking the vessel. The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified but it appeared on websites that usually carry militant groups' messages.



The ship's owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said it was aware of the militant posting and was investigating the claim. Mitsui O.S.K Lines initially reported the incident as an attack, after a crewmember reported seeing a flash of light.



A crewmember was injured and the tanker sustained a square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull. At the time, 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.



The militant statement identified the purported bomber as Ayyub al-Tishan and carried his picture, showing him dressed in a white Arab robe and head-cover and pointing to a photograph of a tanker on a laptop. It said the bomber was a "martyr" — meaning he had died in the attack. It also said it had delayed the announcement until several group members who were involved in the operation "returned safely to base."



The statement claimed the attack meant to "weaken the international blasphemous system that plundered the wealth of the Muslims" and mocked officials who had said the tanker may have been damaged from an earthquake, describing those remarks as an effort by authorities to conceal the nature of the attack because of the effect it could have on oil prices and world economy.



The truth and reliability of this statement is not known and there have been no previous attacks by al-Qaida groups on Japanese individuals or company assets in the past.



The Brigades have in the past claimed responsibility for 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. It had also claimed 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.



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



Source: The Associated Press