The report came after an obscure Al-Qaeda-linked group
said Wednesday one of its suicide bombers had hit the tanker to avenge the
plunder of Muslim wealth. If true, the claim by the little-known Brigades of
Abdullah Azzam would mark the first time the terror network has attacked the
Japanese.
Emirates' WAM news agency on Friday quoted an unnamed
government official as saying the investigation revealed traces of homemade
explosives on the hull of the tanker.
WAM said investigators believe a small boat with
explosives had approached the tanker. It said the explosives find
"indicates the tanker was subjected to a terror attack."
There have been conflicting reports about what happened
to the M. Star supertanker, which was damaged July 28 in the Strait of Hormuz -
a transit point for about 40 percent of tanker-shipped oil worldwide.
A crewmember was injured and the vessel sustained a
square-shaped dent on the rear side of the hull during the incident. The Marshall
Islands-flagged ship, loaded with 270,000 tons of oil, was heading from the
petroleum port of Das Island in the United Arab Emirates to the Japanese port
of Chiba outside Tokyo.
In its claim posted on militant websites, the
Al-Qaeda-linked group carried a photo of the purported bomber pointing to a
photograph of a tanker on a laptop. It said the bomber was a "martyr"
- meaning he had died in the attack. It also said it had delayed the
announcement until several group members who were involved in the operation
"returned safely to base."
The WAM report said the vessel left the Emirati port of
Fujairah on Friday after damages to the hull were fixed.
The Brigades have in the past claimed responsibility for
the August 2005 firing of Katyusha rockets that narrowly missed a US amphibious
assault ship docked at Jordan's Aqaba Red Sea resort but killed a Jordanian
soldier. It had also claimed the July and October 2004 bombings at Egypt's Red
Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik and two other resorts that killed a total of 98
people.
