US Blames Iran for Attack on Two Oil Tankers in Sea of Oman in Potentially Explosive Situation [WATCH]

June 14, 2019

3 min read

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for an attack against two oil tankers, the Norwegian-owned  Front Altair and the Singapore-owned ship Kokuka Courageous, in the Sea of Oman as part of their plan to cut off the vital oil shipping route through the Straits of Hormuz. No casualties were reported.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond, has been at the heart of regional tensions for decades.

“This is only the latest in a series of attacks instigated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its surrogates against American and allied interests,” Pompeo told reporters on Thursday. “On April 22, Iran promised the world it would interrupt the flow of the oil through the Strait of Hormuz. It is now working to execute on that promise.”

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, and North America. It has been the focus of regional tensions for decades. 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the shipping lane is just two miles wide in either direction and is highly susceptible to attack. About one-fifth of the entire global consumption of oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. It is also the route used for nearly all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced by the world’s biggest LNG exporter, Qatar. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, is tasked with protecting the commercial ships in the area.

Iran claimed that it rescued the crews of the tankers after the attack but that claim has been debunked. A spokesman for the US Central Command said the 21 crew members from the Singapore oil tanker Kokuka Courageous, which was en route from Saudi Arabia to Singapore with a shipment of methanol when it was attacked, were on board the US Navy ship USS Bainbridge.

A U.S. defense official told CNN that sailors aboard a US naval destroyer spotted an unexploded mine on one of two tankers. A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. The Pentagon released photos and a video taken from the USS Bainbridge that they claim shows Iranian forces removing the unexploded mine from the Kokuka Courageous.

Iran has been known to use Limpet mines against tankers in the past most notably during the “Tanker Wars” in the late 1980s.

On May 12, four oil tankers — two Saudi, one Norwegian and one Emirati — were damaged in still unexplained attacks in the Gulf of Oman off the United Arab Emirates (UAE). U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Iranian naval mines were almost certainly behind those attacks but declined to provide specific evidence that Tehran was involved.  A UAE investigation into the incident concluded that the explosions were mostly caused by Limpet mines attached by highly-trained divers deployed by small, fast boats.

Share this article

Donate today to support Israel’s needy

$10

$25

$50

$100

$250

CUSTOM AMOUNT

Subscribe

Prophecy from the Bible is revealing itself as we speak. Israel365 News is the only media outlet reporting on it.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter today to get all the most important stories directly to your inbox. See how the latest updates in Jerusalem and the world are connected to the prophecies we read in the Bible. .