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Radar data shows 2 small boats near damaged Japanese tanker before attack
The plot thickens...TOKYO Japanese authorities have found radar data showing two small unidentified boats near the Japanese tanker M. Star that was damaged in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz on July 28, transport ministry sources said Tuesday. The data retrieved from the tankers voyage data recorder showed two small boats changing directions many times and making other suspicious moves, raising the possibility that they may have been involved in the purported attack. The Japan Transport Safety Board, a body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the state-run National Maritime Research Institute are currently analyzing the images left in the M. Stars data recorder, the sources said. The National Police Agencys National Research Institute of Police Science is also checking substances collected from the damaged part of the tanker to see if they were components of an explosive. The radar data showed the small boats sailing parallel to the tanker, passing it and then turning around. They also showed that at some point, one of the boats disappeared from the radar, a move believed to indicate that it had moved to its blind spot around the tanker, according to the sources. After the ship was damaged, a manager of the UAEs Fujairah port said something collided with the tanker. In early August, a militant group linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attack on the Japanese tanker. Later, the UAEs state-run news agency WAM, citing a UAE coast guard source, reported that local explosives experts 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 loaded with explosives, the source was quoted as saying in the report. Posted by: tu3031 2010-08-19 |
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