Friday, June 14, 2019

Attacks in the Persian Gulf

6/14/19 CBS News reports on tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf:
The Japanese owner of the Kokuka Courageous, one of two oil tankers targeted near the Strait of Hormuz, said Friday that sailors on board saw "flying objects" just before it was hit, suggesting the vessel wasn't damaged by mines.
That account contradicts what the U.S. military said as it released a video Friday it said shows Iranian forces removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the two ships that were hit....
Company president Yutaka Katada said Friday he believes the flying objects seen by the sailors could have been bullets. He denied any possibility of mines or torpedoes because the damage was above the ship's waterline. He called reports of a mine attack "false."
Yes, I often see bullets in flight.  Don't you?  What is Iran's interest in this?  Reducing oil supplies drives up petroleum prices: one of Iran's primary sources of foreign exchange.  This is contrary to U.S. interests.

Iran is trying to force a military confrontation with the U.S.

I know that under some conditions you can see bullets in flight, but you need to be looking for them and I rather doubt any bullets set a tanker on fire.

3 comments:

  1. I'm guessing "bullets" was a bad translation of what he really meant, something like RPGs or rockets.

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  2. My Grandfather was an Austro-Hungarian Soldier in the Italian Alps in WW1. One night he noticed that he could see the artillery shells passing in front of the Moon. No one believed him until they looked too, and saw the specks flitting across the Moon.
    I agree with Eric. Not Bullets, but "Projectiles", something like RPGs or Rockets. Maybe even some sort of ship's gun, like on Battleships and Destroyers 75 years ago.

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  3. I was thinking drones that flew to the tankers to attach the magnetic mines ad then retreated.

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