The M Star Mystery Solved?

Who or what the [expletive deleted] dented Japan’s supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz?

We have a putative winner.

Tanker blast in Gulf ‘was terrorist attack’

A terrorist attack was behind an explosion last week that damaged a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates official news agency said on Friday.

More than a third of the world’s traded oil flows through the oil-rich Gulf’s strategic waterway that is bordered by Oman, the UAE and Iran, and a terrorist attack, if confirmed, will heighten security concerns in a region where tensions are already running high, analysts said.

Remains of homemade explosives were discovered on the M Star’s hull, as was a dent on the starboard side of the ship, a UAE coastguard source was quoted as saying by the Wam agency.

“Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives,” the source was quoted as saying. The investigation into the incident was conducted in the UAE’s Fujairah port.

The M Star, which is owned and operated by Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines, was damaged by what the crew said was an explosion after midnight on July 28, as it travelled through the strait on its way to a port near Tokyo. The tanker, which was loaded with 270,204 tons of oil, was able to continue under its own power to the UAE, with only one crew member slightly injured.

See also:
Japan tanker was damaged in a terror attack, UAE says
Japanese oil tanker attacked by terrorists, says UAE
UAE: Japanese tanker attacked in Persian Gulf
Report: Terrorist Attack Damaged Japanese Oil Tanker
Report: Terrorists Damaged Japanese Tanker
U.A.E. Confirms Terror Attack on Japan Tanker in Persian Gulf Last Month
Brigades of Abdullah Azzam
The M Star Mystery

Oh boy, Islamic terrorists are now ramming shipping in the Strait of Hormuz with explosive laden boats. They failed this time, but they learn.

/it’s not a cold war, it’s not a hot war, it’s an asymmetric war, a concept we barely have the stomach for