Re: [iwar] Cole-style attack again

From: Johnson, Brad C. (brad.johnson@vigilinx.com)
Date: 2002-10-08 07:50:10
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From: "Johnson, Brad C." <brad.johnson@vigilinx.com>
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Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 10:50:10 -0400
Subject: Re: [iwar] Cole-style attack again
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Interesting rift in the reporting on the incident. This AFP article, and
most of the Middle Eastern reporting (Ajeeb, Al jazeera, etc.) that I have
seen on this incident describe, in varying levels of detail, a boat loaded
with explosives hitting the tanker. Many of these same sites are linking it
to the Cole anniversary and a "new" Bin Laden warning.  The CNN, MSNBC and
stateside coverage has contended from the beginning that the exposition
occurred from within and makes no mention of a second ship. 

-----Original Message-----
From: televr [mailto:yangyun@metacrawler.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 8:12 PM
To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iwar] Cole-style attack again


Oil tanker attacked off coast of Yemen
Oct 7 07:14
AFP

A boat packed with explosives rammed, badly holed and set ablaze a
French supertanker off Yemen today, a week before the second
anniversary of the terrorist attack on the US warship Cole, the French
embassy said.

Yemeni authorities set up a crisis cell and voiced fears of a major
oil slick spreading along the Arabian Sea coast.

"The oil tanker was rammed by a small boat stuffed with explosives" as
it came by an offshore terminal about 700km east of Aden, vice-consul
Marcel Goncalves told AFP.

"It seems to be an attack in the same style as the USS Cole," he said
of the hi-tech destroyer bombed by suspected al-Qaeda militants in
Aden harbour on October 12, 2000. Seventeen US sailors died and 38
were wounded in that attack.

October 7 also marks the first anniversary of the US-led war in
Afghanistan on the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda terror network, whose
leader Osama bin Laden claims Yemen as his ancestral home.

A gaping hole was blown into the side of the 330-metre-long tanker,
named the Limburg, managed by the company France Shipmanagement, the
embassy said.

Twelve of the 25-man crew had been hospitalised with injuries in the
eastern port city of Al-Mukallah, the embassy added.

Yemeni officials said all hands had been rescued and they were
spending the night in a hotel.

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But in France, Limburg owners Euronav, based outside Nantes on the
Atlantic coast, said they believed it was a deliberate attack, and
added that one of the ship's 17 Bulgarian crew was still missing. A
Yemeni pilot was most likely missing as well, they said.

Eight of the crew were French.

"For us it's deliberate. Because to cut through the first hull of this
double-hulled oil tanker, which is in good condition and only two
years old, you need a very, very strong force," Euronav director
Jacques Moizan told AFP.

"It still has to be confirmed .... but a little boat which rams an oil
tanker with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes, it's very surprising,"
administrative director Alain Ferre said.

Limburg's captain Hubert Ardillon, who spoke by telephone to his
headquarters, had seen the small vessel approach, Ferre revealed.

Ardillon could not see if the vessel carried explosives but Euronav
management concluded that it was loaded with explosives given the
extent of the damage, Ferre added.

Euronav and France Shipmanagement are subsidiaries of holding group
Euronav Luxembourg.

Yemeni officials baulked at the idea that a rerun of the Cole could
have taken place.

"The fire aboard the French tanker was caused by an explosion in one
of the ship's reservoirs," an official government spokesman said.

This appeared to be a partial denial of the embassy version of events,
but did not go into any detail or refer to the small vessel which
rammed the supertanker.

The spokesman added that an inquiry had been launched into the cause
of the blast.

The authorities were in contact with the Limburg's owners and insurers
to ensure "the rapid despatch of tugs to control the fire and limit
pollution".

The Limburg was being pushed by winds towards al-Mukallah, the
spokesman said, adding that the authorities were trying to "avoid
enormous damage to the town".

The Limburg, carrying 397,000 barrels of crude from Iran's Kharg
terminal, was to add a further 1.5 million barrels of Yemeni oil from
Mina al-Thabah, an official with the Hadramaut local government said.

Transport and Maritime Affairs Minister Saed Yafhi was put in charge
of the cell instructed "to take the necessary measures to bring the
fire under control on board the tanker and to fight maritime pollution".

The spokesman did not specify if a slick had already leaked out of the
vessel.

A ship had already left Aden "to fight pollution" and the Canadian oil
firm Nexen, which works in the area, was also expected to assist, the
spokesman said.

The Hadramaut governorate also released a statement saying simply that
the explosion was caused "when the reservoirs filled with crude caught
fire with the vessel three nautical miles from the offshore terminal
of Al-Thabah".

However, on September 10, the US Navy warned shippers of unconfirmed
reports that al-Qaeda had planned attacks against oil tankers
transiting the Gulf and the Horn of Africa.

In an advisory to commercial shippers, the Navy's Maritime Liaison
Office in Bahrain said there was no indication an attack was imminent
but that the threat should be taken seriously.

In Paris, the French foreign ministry offered no comment today.

"An inquiry has been launched by the competent authorities in Yemen in
order to determine the causes of the explosion," it said.

"At this stage and pending the results of this inquiry, any comment on
the cause of the fire would be premature."

The ship was now located just off Ar-Riyan airport, outside
Al-Mukalla, a correspondent at the scene reported.

A huge pall of smoke blew over the Al-Mukalla area of Hadramaut.

The trial of Yemenis implicated in the bombing of the Cole was set to
open in Aden in the coming days after Sanaa agreed with US officials
to bring the suspects to court, a government official said at the end
of September.

MP Sultan Hazzam al-Atwani told AFP that more than 100 people were
being held in Yemen on suspicion of terrorism links, including 15 over
the bombing of the Cole.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has urged suspected al-Qaeda
fighters in Yemen to surrender, promising they will not be delivered
to the United States. 



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