(Yahoo! Finance)
Zainab Fattah June 19, 2019
A U.S. navy investigator presented what he said was evidence of Iran’s involvement in the attacks on tankers near the Persian Gulf, laying out the most detailed assessment that’s been made public since the incident raised tensions in the region earlier this month.
Commander Sean Kido, an explosives expert at the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said the attack on the Japanese-operated vessel, the Kokuka Courageous, was carried out by a limpet mine planted on the tanker’s body above the water line.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command facility near the Port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, Kido said his team of investigators was able to recover a magnet used to attach the limpet mine to the skin of the ship. It also retrieved a handprint as well as fingerprints from near the spot where the magnet was found.
“The limpet mine that was used in the attack is distinguishable and it’s also strikingly bearing a resemblance to Iranian mines that have already been publicly displayed in Iranian military parades,” Kido said. “We recovered biometric information which can be used to build a criminal case to hold the individual responsible.”
Still, he stopped short of directly blaming Iran and presented no evidence about a second attack that same day on the Norwegian-owned Front Altair ship.
The burden of proof is on the U.S. to back up its claims that Iran was behind a spate of attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping choke point through which about 40% of the world’s seaborne oil travels.
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