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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...

The U.S. Navy deterred Iranian forces from seizing two commercial tankers on Wednesday in separate incidents. First, at about 1 a.m. local time, an Iranian navy vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. It departed when the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived at the scene, the U.S. 5th Fleet announced on Wednesday. Approximately three hours later, another Iranian vessel began harassing the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager in international waters roughly 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman. It opened fire with both small arms and crew-served...

The U.S. Navy said Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday amid wider tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program. The Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet. Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston, Texas.

Six Ships Near Iran in the Gulf of Oman Lose Control of Their Steering – Another British Ship May Have Been Hijacked By Joe Hoft Published August 4, 2021 at 8:50am 78 Comments Share Tweet Gab Share TelegramTelegram Clouthub Share (AP Graphic) What’s going on in the Gulf of Oman? Advertisement - story continues below Reports out of Israel indicate that at least six ships have lost control and another British ship might be have been hijacked in or near the Gulf of Oman. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — At least six ships off the coast of the United Arab...

A large fire erupted late on Wednesday afternoon at an oil refinery near Iran’s capital, Tehran, which followed news from earlier in the day that the nation’s largest warship sank after it caught fire in the Gulf of Oman. “The fire struck the state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. to the south of Tehran, said Mansour Darajati, the director-general of the capital’s crisis management team,” The Associated Press reported. “Firefighters believe it struck a pipeline for liquefied petroleum gas at the facility, Darajati told Iranian state television. He did not elaborate.” 🎥 #آتش‌سوزی عظیم در پالایشگاه شهید تندگویان تهران رئیس مرکز فرماندهی...

TEHRAN, Iran - The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semiofficial news agencies reported. The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain it, Fars said. The vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Photos circulated on Iranian social media of sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them. State TV and...

[My translation- JA] Media in Iran have reported this evening (Tuesday) on an explosion and fire on a ship of the Iranian Navy, the Harj. The ship, which serves as a forward base for special forces, attack ships and the launch of drones, went up in flames in the Gulf of Oman. According to reports in Iranian media, the ship returned to an unidentified port, where local forces worked to extinguish the fire. They further reported that there were no injuries in the incident. In Iran they have denied reports on social networks that the Harj was making its way...

State-owned NIOC said that operations have begun to start injecting oil into the 1,000km Goreh-Jask pipeline, which will be inaugurated "in the near future." The 46-inch diameter pipeline connects Iran's southwest Bushehr province to Jask, on the country's southern Gulf of Oman coast. The Jask terminal will provide an alternative to the Kharg Island loading point — from where most Iranian crude is shipped — and smaller terminals Lavan, Sirri and Soroush, all of which are located further into the Mideast Gulf. Iranian condensate exports are served by the Assaluyeh terminal. Iran has overwhelmingly relied on Kharg Island for its...

An examination of damage to an Israeli-owned cargo ship currently docked in Dubai indicates an explosion that hit it in the Gulf of Oman was caused by mines covertly attached to the ship, according to a Sunday TV report. Channel 13 news did not cite sources for the report, which contradicted earlier reported assessments in Israel that that blast was caused by missiles. An Israeli team is believed to be in Dubai to examine the ship following the suspected attack. The ship is undergoing repairs in Dubai. Limpet mines are a type of naval explosive that attach to targets using...

Two tankers have been targeted this morning while transiting waters near to Fujairah. Frontline’s fully laden LR 2Front Altair was hit by surface attacks, and an enormous fire ensued forcing the crew to abandon ship. The crew were safely picked up by nearby general cargoship, Hyundai Dubai. Bernhard Schulte’s chemical tanker Kokuka Courageous was also hit.

Lots of differing accounts from different media sources. Some say the tankers were attacked, a couple say “ torpedoed”. Bottom line, there was an incident nvolving two large oil tankers, one is on fire.

The situation remains extremely fluid at this time and details are bound to morph in the coming hours, but it seems clear that some sort of maritime incident has occurred in the Sea Of Oman. Reports indicate that at least one tanker is on fire and the UK Maritime Trade Operations group put out a safety bulletin warning of an incident occurring in the Gulf Of Oman and urging extreme caution to mariners operating in the area. The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Front Altair appears to be the ship on fire, while reports also state that the Panama-flagged tanker Kokuka Courageous...

Gol-e-Zard Cave lies in the shadow of Mount Damavand, which at more than 5,000 metres dominates the landscape of northern Iran. In this cave, stalagmites and stalactites are growing slowly over millennia and preserve in them clues about past climate events. Changes in stalagmite chemistry from this cave have now linked the collapse of the Akkadian Empire to climate changes more than 4,000 years ago... It appears that the empire became increasingly dependent on the productivity of the northern lands and used the grains sourced from this region to feed the army and redistribute the food supplies to key supporters....

The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. It comes just days before the U.S. reimposes sanctions on Tehran after its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with U.S. ships in the area, the official added, according to AFP. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said...

U.K. researcher says area where marine life has difficulty surviving is worse than expectedUnderwater robots have found that a vast, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Oman is now the largest such area in the world. Scientists have known about the zone for around 50 years, but until recently they have not been able to collect very much data due to piracy and conflicts in the region. They sent two human-size robots known as seagliders into the area for eight months, and the vessels ventured into previously inaccessible areas. The seagliders found a zone with little to no oxygen...

Iran began new naval war games in the Gulf on Thursday to show the Islamic state's "power to defend" itself against any attack, state television reported. was the second such display of military might in less than a month. The maneuvers by Iran's regular navy, due to last eight days in the waterway crucial for global oil supplies, coincided with rising tension in Tehran's long-running nuclear dispute with Western powers. The United States is lobbying U.N. Security Council members to back a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, to press it into curbing sensitive atomic work the West suspects is...

Iran's navy commander has confirmed the flight of an Iranian aircraft near a US warship in the waters of the Persian Gulf. On Tuesday, CNN quoted a senior US military officer as saying that an F27 aircraft of the Iranian Navy flew as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. "US warships tread the free waters of the Gulf of Oman and it is Iranian navy's duty to conduct routine surveillance flights in the region," Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the Iranian Navy commander, said in a Tuesday news conference. "The F27 plane of the navy flew above...

A senior Iranian Air Force officer does not rule out reports that an Iranian fighter jet might have flown over a US aircraft carrier last week in the Arabian Sea. The incident was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. According to the report, a plane belonging to the Iranian Navy was flying as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. The Eisenhower was in the northern Arabian Sea when the Iranian maritime patrol aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of the vessel, US military officials claimed. Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force said that...

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell today credited the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for its disciplined response last week when an Iranian military aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of it in the Gulf of Oman. An Iranian navy maritime patrol aircraft flew near the carrier April 21 as it had finished routine replenishment-at-sea operations, a Navy official confirmed on background. The aircraft remained in the area for about 20 minutes before it flew away. The incident occurred as Iranian forces were preparing to conduct exercises in the Gulf. Morrell played down the incident, saying close encounters...

WASHINGTON – A U.S. military official says the Navy had a close encounter with an Iranian surveillance jet last week in the Gulf of Oman. The official says the jet buzzed a Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Eisenhower, coming within about 1,000 yards of the ship. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the April 21 incident occurred in international waters.The jet was described as a maritime patrol aircraft generally used for surveillance. The official says "there was nothing threatening about the aircraft itself or how it...