Free Republic

QUETTA: It seems there was no respite in attacks on Afghanistan bound Nato convoys as several more oil tankers were destroyed when unknown armed men attacked the oil tankers in the area of Mithri of the Bolan district.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday approved the deployment of the USS Bataan amphibious readiness group and the 26th Marine Expeditional Unit to the Gulf region, according to US officials. The readiness group consists of three ships, including the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. An expeditional unit usually consists of about 2,500 Marines. In an announcement, US Central Command said the deployment will provide "even greater flexibility and maritime capability in the region.” The announcement did not name the ships, but US officials detailed the units involved in the deployment on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. Along with...

The White House said the US would respond to Iranian aggression together with allies and partners in the Middle East region.Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, firing shots at one of them, the US Navy said. It said that in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the US Navy responded, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages. “The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters,” said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “The US Navy responded immediately...

A British-flagged oil tanker was seized by Iran on Friday night and was heading towards a Revolutionary Guard base, in a major escalation of tensions along one of the world's most vital oil shipping routes. The Stena Impero had been en route to Saudi Arabia but made an abrupt change of course and began moving towards the Iranian island of Qeshm, according to data relayed by maritime tracking services. The ship “went dark”, meaning its identification system was turned off, at 16:29 UK time and nothing has been heard from her or her 23 crew since. Northern Marine, a Clyde-based...

NEW - Iran seizes second oil tanker in a week — US Navy(Navy Video Of It In Link Below)https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1653709518247698437

Shipping companies have snapped up dozens of secondhand oil tankers this year, paying record prices for ice-class ships that can navigate frozen seas around Russia’s Baltic ports in winter. A driving force behind the purchases, say people familiar with the deals: To get Russian oil to market after the harshest sanctions to date strike Russia’s energy industry next week. The frenzy in a quiet corner of the shipping market is splitting the tanker industry in two. One part deals with Western oil companies, banks and insurers. The other, known informally in the industry as the “shadow fleet,” doesn’t, allowing it...

BREAKING: Train carrying oil tankers collides with an 18-wheeler in central Texas, sparking a massive explosion - but the driver and conductor both survive without major injuries The crash occurred at around 6.45am Tuesday outside Cameron, Texas The train was carrying oil tankers that exploded on impact with the semi-truck The explosion sparked a massive fire that was still burning hours later Both the train conductor and the truck driver survived without major injuries By Megan Sheets For Dailymail.com Published: 10:50 EST, 23 February 2021 | Updated: 11:10 EST, 23 February 2021

VIDEO: US Coast Guard says it’s keeping an eye on 27 oil tankers anchored off the coast of Southern California. Another great example of floating storage build-up as demand for oil and refined products plunge | #OOTT #Contango video via @USCGLosAngeles     https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1253722290266738689?s=20    

Iran has seized a second tanker, US official says From CNN's Barbara Starr Iran has also seized a second tanker, the Liberian-flagged MV Mesdar, according to a US official. Two more US officials tell CNN that, according to maritime intelligence reports, the indication is the Mesdar has been seized. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced earlier that its navy has captured a British-flagged tanker ‘Stena Impero’ in the Strait of Hormuz. The order of seizure of the two ships isn’t clear at this time.

Another reminder of how strange it is that an anti-war conspiracy theory is circulating in respectable-ish wings of American politics and not only is Donald Trump not a proponent, he’s the head of the government that’s being targeted by it.Bernie’s British counterpart, Jeremy Corbyn, also questioned Iran’s culpability in the tanker attack recently and got ripped for it by the Tory foreign secretary: Pathetic and predictable. From Salisbury to the Middle East, why can he never bring himself to back British allies, British intelligence or British interests? https://t.co/8JyGz7T4Yx— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 15, 2019 Sanders won’t be so easily...

The chief of staff of the Libyan army has warned foreign companies the army will fire at any non-Libyan tanker entering the country’s territorial waters. The warning comes after a spike in tensions in Libya brought about by a controversial deal struck by the so-called government of unity and the Libyan Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG). Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) firmly believes the deal, struck by the UN-backed government and the PFG to reopen key ports was a mistake, NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a letter to UN’s envoy to Libya Martin Kobler and to oil and diplomatic officials....

Note: Photo included with article. SNIPPET: "U.S. authorities have transferred Younis al-Mauritani, held in Afghanistan, to Mauritania, officials in the West African nation said on Saturday. Pakistan said in September 2011 it arrested al-Mauritani, better known in his homeland Mauritania as Youssouf Al Mauritani, during a joint operation with U.S. intelligence services." SNIPPET: "Pakistani military authorities said Al Mauritani was planning to attack U.S. economic interests including pipelines, hydro-electric dams and oil tankers when he was captured."

Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday. The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they gassed up their cars. U.S. officials said the tanker idea, included in documents found in...

As the Gulf oil disaster closes in on the 50-day mark, the Obama Administration and BP refuse to use the most effective method of oil cleanup. The top oil barons of the world--the Saudis--have used this method to avoid a mammoth oil disaster. And the result was swift, effective, and conclusive. In 1993 and '94 the Saudis faced an oil spill of historic proportions in the Arabian Gulf as four leaking tankers and two oil gushers threatened to spur a catastrophic event that was 65 times worse than the Exxon-Valdez spill. An American engineer, Nick Pozzi, was part of a...

Despite its efforts over the last several years, Iran is not yet the naval power it hopes to become, according to a Moscow analyst, but Tehran already has sufficient capacity to disrupt shipments of oil in the Persian Gulf, an ability that already “represents a serious danger and requires an adequate response from the international community.” In an assessment of “The Naval Power of Iran: From Intention to Reality” prepared for the Moscow Near Eastern Institute, V.V. Yevseyev argues that most of what Iran has done in this sector to date represents “a cover” for plans to engage in “diversionary...

March 15, 2010 “India arrests two for planning attacks in Mumbai” SNIPPET:”* Anti-terrorism police chief says Rashid and Ali are Indians who took orders from across the border * Says they intended to target a fuel facility and a shopping centre” SNIPPET: “MUMBAI: Indian police said on Sunday they had arrested two men for planning to attack a fuel facility and a shopping centre in India’s financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, where terrorists killed 166 people in November 2008. The two are Indian nationals, Mumbai residents and have been identified as Abdul Latif Rashid and Riyaz Ali, aged 29 and...

Nigeria Militants Threaten to Hit Tankers   Feb 19, 9:47 AM (ET) By OSMOND CHIDI (AP) An unidentified youth walks pass Agip contract workers working near a gas flare belonging to the...Full Image p {margin:12px 0px 0px 0px;} WARRI, Nigeria (AP) - Militants who seized nine foreign oil workers in a string of attacks across Nigeria's troubled delta region threatened Sunday to step up assaults by firing rockets at international oil tankers. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which claims to be fighting for a greater local share of Nigeria's oil wealth, claimed responsibility Saturday for a...

(SINGAPORE) A US-based security expert has sounded a dire warning on the seriousness of the threat of maritime terrorism to South-east Asian waters and in particular the Straits of Malacca, saying it's not a question of if or when, but where and how often. Likening the situation to a housing estate that is on fire, security analyst and visiting Olmsted Foundation Scholar John Bradford said that while a number of houses on one street are fully ablaze, one in the middle has not yet caught fire but is being showered with hot embers. 'This region is aflame with maritime violence,...

The crew of an oil tanker foiled a pirate attack on Saturday after robbers tried to board their vessel in the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, the International Maritime Bureau said in its weekly report. Pirates approached the tanker, used to carry refined oil products like gasoline, in two speedboats at 1.10 pm local time, the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre said on its website. The name and size of the ship were not reported. The crew activated fire hoses, fired signal flares and increased the vessel's speed, said the IMB, part of the International Chamber...