So....four tankers attacked....three you say we're Mines....and the odd one was a Hellfire Missile from a US Reaper Drone is it now?

Who and how were the three successful Mines attached?

Why a mix of Mines and a Drone or did a new and secret Drone attach the Mines?

Lay out for us how you think these four attacks were perpetrated would you?

I have never suggested it was a US Hellfire Missile, I reported what the Tanker crew and its owners have publicly stated regarding a missile rather than a mine hitting the ship.

As for the mines being attached, when, how and by whom were they attached ? Again the claim of mines is being done by media, a drone loaded with some explosives could just as easily been the culprit for all of them.

If it was a "Military" missile I very much doubt the ship would have been going anywhere but attaching some explosives to a drone is not exactly high tech anymore and that is going to be scary in the future.

Bearing in mind that the ships were underway then it requires a decent feat to be able to place mines in such a way as to minimise damage, that is unless they had been planted when ship was picking up its cargo.

Puzzled about reluctance of revealing surveillance around all the ships.

Long held Plans.....or long held plans?

The way our Administrations how can it be long held plans?

I am sure there is a contingency plan for war with the UK stashed away somewhere in a filing cabinet at DOD.....it will be a very thin File however.

Oh the plans are there for all, even I would suggest for taking back areas of the US that have decided to go their own way.

Administrations come and go but you can bet plans were drawn up with lots of different scenarios and get reviewed on a reasonably regular basis depending on political environment and with little administration involvement.

US has "interfered" in UK elections before both overtly and covertly, I fully expect them to do so again next election.

US wouldn't be doing its job in looking after its own interests were it not doing that.

Maybe we need to look beyond the obvious parties - who is most likely to benefit from a war in the Gulf, and the resultant squeeze on oil exports and increase in Oil prices? Maybe even non-State entities

We have agreed on stuff before. :)

Tanker belonging to company Zodiac Marine attacked off Masirah Island in Oman. Two crew dead including one Briton.

No news yet on the nature of the attack.

https://apnews.com/article/ship-isra...fafb31cc42fa50

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire reportedly came under attack off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, authorities said Friday, an assault that killed two crew members.

The attack Thursday night targeted Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street just northeast of the Omani island of Masirah. The location is over 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Oman’s capital, Muscat…..

London-based Zodiac Maritime, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group, issued a statement saying the ship was the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street and was Japanese owned. The British Defense Ministry earlier misidentified the ship’s owners.

Zodiac Maritime described the attack as “piracy,” without elaborating. It later said the attack killed two crew members, one from the United Kingdom and another from Romania. It said the company was “not aware of harm to any other personnel.”

“At the time of the incident the vessel was in the northern Indian Ocean, traveling from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah with no cargo onboard,” the statement from Zodiac Maritime said, naming ports in Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates respectively…..

An brief initial statement from the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said an investigation was underway into the incident, which it described as happening late Thursday night.

The statement did not elaborate, other to say that it suspected the attack did not involve piracy. Earlier on Thursday, the British military group had said it was investigating another unexplained incident in the same area, but it did not elaborate.

Oman did not acknowledge an attack and officials there did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not respond to a request for comment.

Masirah huh?
 

That’s pretty exciting.

BV

Not the usual pirate hunting ground off Salalah/ East Yemen. Not the usual 'pirates' either..

Indeed, especially if you have concerns about regional instability and Iranian-backed militia attacking merchant shipping that is supposed to have right of innocent passage. (Let's not get into piracy in the Indian Ocean and off HOA.) If you were looking for signals that the regime might be willing to have a pop at oil traffic through the Straits of Hormuz, this could be one. The absence of substantive comment from Oman, MOD, 5th Fleet suggests there may be a bit of analysis and planning going on, so there will be some excitement in several HQs today.

Anyone any idea what the attack was carried out by? It seems a bit away from the normal "danger"areas that I remember from my years in that part of the world (and there were quite a few!).

Bill

Reports are it was an armed suicide drone. Presumably it would have to have had either a line of sight command link or satellite.

The two reported killed were the captain, a Rumanian, and a British security guard. Which would seem to suggest it targeted the bridge.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...st-2021-07-30/

….Al Alam TV, the Iranian government's Arabic-language television network, cited unnamed sources as saying the attack on the ship came in response to a suspected, unspecified Israeli attack on Dabaa airport in Syria…..

Israeli news website Ynet said the assessment in Israel was that there were two attacks on the ship, spaced several hours apart. The first caused no damage, and the second hit the bridge, causing the casualties.….

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which provides maritime security information, said the attack was not piracy. The vessel was about 152 nautical miles (280 km) northeast of the Omani port of Duqm when it was attacked, it said.…

The Iranians attack , the Israelis attack - quite honestly it suits a lot of people on both sides to stoke trouble

I have no time for either side

The Iranians have been getting hammered for some time now in Iraq and Syria. Not to mention countless Cyber attacks on their facilities.

Whilst I have no time for them I’m not surprised that, if involved, it took them this long.

From the ‘Arab News’ site, https://www.arabnews.com/node/1903181/middle-east
Quote: the attack which, US officials say, saw several drones laden with explosives flown into the Mercer Street tanker, one of which hit the crew’s living quarters.

Is that like a kamikaze cruise missile?

As opposed to the sort that returns from whence it came…?!