Oil Tanker Explodes off Yemen (French Say It's Terrorism)

BBC News ^ | October 6, 2002

[Timesink]

Sunday, 6 October, 2002, 09:36 GMT 10:36 UK

Oil tanker explodes off Yemen

A French-owned oil tanker is on fire off the coast of Yemen after an explosion on board.

Yemeni officials say they do not consider the blast an act of sabotage, but a diplomat at the French embassy told the AFP news agency it was believed to be a terrorist attack.

"The oil tanker was rammed by a small boat stuffed with explosives," the French Vice-Consul, Marcel Goncalves, said.

The tanker burst into flame as it headed towards the port of al Dabah on the eastern coast of the country.

Firefighters are said to have already rescued 11 of the 25 crew members.

USS Cole

"It seems to be an attack in the same style as the USS Cole," said the diplomat, referring to the attack on the American warship in which 17 US servicemen were killed.

But Yemeni officials are adamant the incident is nothing like that attack, blamed on al-Qaeda, two years ago in the port of Aden.

The BBC's Heba Salah says the Yemeni Government has been keen to shed its country's image as a safe haven for al-Qaeda militants.

So far, the authorities have arrested more than 100 suspected members of the group and of other Islamic organisations.

Rescue operations

The tanker was coming into the port to load up with crude oil when the blaze started.

The ship is said to have headed out to sea as firefighters tackled the flames.

Rescue operations are continuing.

[ChadGore]

bttt

[Chad Fairbanks]

Yemeni Cricket!

[ChadGore]

Re: "have the French surrendered yet?"

Osama Bin Laden is expected to except the Franch surrender terms at noon.

lol

[Dog Gone]

The terrorists obviously didn't know this was a French ship. They never would have attacked it if they had.

[JasonC]

"8 Frenchmen and 17 Bulgarians aboard"

Why does this sound like the start of a "light bulb" joke?

[blam]

"I guess you weren't thinking of LNG tankers, which also come in to port. If one of those babies went off, it would be devastating."

Yup. Those are the 'atomic bombs' of tankers.

[andy_card]

have the French surrendered yet?

That line was mildly amusing the first thousand or so times its been used, but now its quite stale and totally meaningless (the French are no less courageous than we are). But if you insist on filling up my bandwidth with pithy anti-French epithets, at least try to make them witty and original.

[MissAmericanPie]

The French should ask themselves what they did to be so hated.

[advocate10]

LOL! In WW-II, they not only surrendered, most of them went over to the other side!

[madrastex]

Friendly fire?

[Nexus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2303363.stm

Oil tanker 'was rammed' off Yemen


The owners of a French oil tanker on fire off the coast of Yemen say they believe it was rammed by a smaller boat, before exploding into flames.


"A junior officer saw a craft approaching the Limburg. He was of the opinion that we touched that craft and then there was an explosion" - Tanker company MD Peter Raes


A junior officer on board the Limburg reported seeing a small craft "fast approaching" the tanker in the port of Ash Shihr, at Mukallah, 570 kilometres (353 miles) east of Aden, and believes the two vessels touched before an explosion occurred.

Yemeni officials say they do not consider the blast an act of sabotage.

But Captain Peter Raes, managing director of France Ship, told BBC News Online it would be "near impossible" for an accidental explosion to have taken place, and that explosives were likely to have been on board the vessel which crashed.

All but one of the ship's 25 crew have safely evacuated and have suffered only minor injuries. One Bulgarian fitter is still unaccounted for.

An attack on the American warship the USS Cole near in the Yemeni port of Aden two years ago killed 17 US servicemen.


Captain Raes said that attack, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, was his "only point of reference" and that he had never seen any other similar incidents of vessels exploding.

'Serious speed'

"A junior officer saw a craft approaching the Limburg. He was of the opinion that we touched that craft and then there was an explosion," Captain Raes said.

He said that other explanations proposed by the Yemeni authorities, though theoretically possible, were "practically impossible".


An onboard fire or oil leak have been mooted as possible causes of the disaster.

Captain Raes said the Limburg was a new, double-hulled ship, and was barely moving at the time of the explosion, which took place during good weather.

He said that the force of the apparent impact had pierced both hulls and penetrated 7-8 metres into the cargo hold, which was loaded with crude oil.

He said only a very large ship, or one moving at "serious speeds" would be able to cause that damage.

He said that he did not believe that extent of destruction could have been caused unless the smaller craft had explosives on board, particularly as the kind of heavy crude oil the Limburg was carrying was not particularly flammable.


Al-Qaeda crackdown

An early response from a French diplomat at the embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, also compared the Limburg disaster with the USS Cole attack.

However, in a more cautious statement, the French Foreign Ministry said it was too early to say what had caused the explosion.

The BBC's Heba Saleh says the Yemeni Government has been keen to shed its country's image as a safe haven for al-Qaeda militants.

So far, the authorities have arrested more than 100 suspected members of the group and of other Islamic organisations.

Those accused of the USS Cole attack are due to go on trial in the coming weeks.

Massive blaze

The Limburg's captain reported an explosion on board at 0915 (0615 GMT) followed by fire, as the ship came into the port from Iran to complete its loading.

At the time of the blast, the Limburg was picking up a pilot to guide it into the terminal.

Eyewitnesses are reported to have described being shaken by the explosion and then seeing a massive column of smoke rising from the site.

Unable to control the fire, the crew abandoned ship at 1200 (0900 GMT)

An oil industry source told Reuters that 397,000 barrels of crude was already on board.

French Vice-Consul in Sana'a, Marcel Goncalves, said the Yemeni authorities did not have the facilities to contain such a large fire.

French forces based in Djibouti who do have the necessary equipment are too far away to provide assistance, he said.

THIS IS TERRORISM - NEX

[Nexus]

I can't find any info on the final destination of this tanker. Can anyone speculate on what sort of impact losing 400,000 barrels of crude would have on the US, if any?

[Nebr FAL owner]

No the French did not lose a war to the goofs of Greenpeace the Greenpeace folks had a ship that they would chase after whaling ships & annoy the French doing nuke tests out in the Pacific the ship was called the "Rainbow Warrior" & it's motto was you can't sink a rainbow to which the Frenc reply was to have some of the intel. service folks get in a rubber raft & paddle up to the side of this floating trash can while it was visiting Sydney Australia & stick a couple of limpet mines on it . In regards to the ships motto, How do you say you wanna bet in French? 8-)

[agrandis]

If this was Al-Qeda, they are truly stupid. A FRENCH oil tanker??? Talk about wasting ammunition!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

But Yemeni officials are adamant the incident is nothing like that attack, blamed on al-Qaeda, two years ago in the port of Aden.

It's not only American teenagers who have learned from the Clinton playbook (in regards to oral sex not really being sex), apparently, all around the world foul little cess-pool countries like Yemen have also studied hard from the Clinton method: Deny, deny, deny.

[matrix]

Gee, too bad. And France has always been such a good friend. How could a thing like this happen to such a wonderful friend of the United States?

[Burr5]

Other articles say it already had some 300,000 barrels of IRANIAN oil on board at the time.

[Nexus]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/10/06/yemen.ship/index.html

It was on its way to France.

[Grampa Dave]

Maybe, the French are finding out that getting in bed to service the Iraqi and other IslamoFascists can have costs: (Mayor of Paris Stabbed)

[TShaunK]

This is outrageous, there is no proof of this!France should not respond without proof!!