This image released by the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday, June 17, 2019, and taken from a U.S. Navy helicopter, shows what the Navy says is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy after allegedly removing an unexploded limpet mine from the M/T Kokuka Courageous. Click to see full-size
On June 17th, the US Department of Defense released more photographs and a timeline on the alleged Iranian attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman that took place on June 13th.
Most of the new photographs were taken from a Navy MH-60R Seahawk and show a scene similar to the grainy black and white video that US Central Command released on June 13th. Back then it further had images showing the alleged mine damage caused to the tanker M/V Kokuka Courageous.
The photographs show a supposed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast attack craft come alongside the Japanese-owned petrochemical tanker M/V Kokuka Courageous and allegedly removed what CENTCOM said is a limpet mine.
“Limpet mines are attached to a vessel via magnets and/or nails and detonated by a timer,” read a statement from U.S. Central Command. “Following the attack, sailors from the Kokuka Couragous discovered a second, unexploded, limpet mine on their vessel and abandoned ship.”
After the crew left the ship, CENTCOM said a Gashti Class patrol boat approached the Kokuka Courageous and recovered the unexploded mine.
Additional images shot from alongside Kokuka Courageous taken from the crew of USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), show a greenish-grey base attached to the hull, what CENTCOM says is the remains of the removed mine.
“Iran is responsible for the attack based on video evidence and the resources and proficiency needed to quickly remove the unexploded limpet mine,” CENTCOM said.
USNI News cited Washington D.C.-based naval analyst Scott Truver, who reviewed the photographs and said that they were a “smoking gun” proving that Iran was behind the attack.
“I have no doubt and I’ve talked to some of [explosive, ordnance and disposal] friends and we’re all in agreement – it’s a smoking gun,” he said.
The US version is the following:
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
In addition, the full statement with the photographs and their descriptions was also published:
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Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
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Click to see full-size image
Department of State spokeswoman Megan Ortagus said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had made a large number of calls on June 16th and 17th to international leaders, trying to convince them that keeping the Strait of Hormuz safe and open is a problem they all must deal with.
“The Secretary had a number of calls with the NATO secretary-general, with a Chinese politburo member, with a Singaporean foreign minister, a Kuwaiti foreign minister, UK foreign minister, Emirati foreign minister, Republic of Korea foreign minister, Qatari foreign minister. We obviously don’t have readouts from every single call that he has, but we have worked incredibly hard with our allies on this assessment as it relates to Iran’s actions last week in the Gulf of Oman.”
Separately, a day earlier Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran of orchestrating the attacks and called for the international community to take a harsher stance against the Islamic Republic.
“But we won’t hesitate to deal with any threat to our people, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our vital interests,” MBS said.
Iran’s response was a statement by Abbas Mousavi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman who blamed the Kingdom for its “wrong policies.”
“Salman’s charges against Iran in various situations is a continuation of Riyadh’s misguided approach and attempts at escaping the problems brought on by their own wrong policies,” Mousavi said.
“Saudi Arabia has poured out the wealth of its people and countries in the region with a lack of proper understanding of the region’s variables with a militaristic, crisis-based approach,” he added.
Mousavi said the kingdom lacked a “proper understanding of the region’s dynamics” and followed “an approach based on militarism and causing crises and tension”.
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America and UK drumming for war with Iran. Today or tomorrow they will invade Iran.
America accusing Iran like Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc and have butchered millions of innocent totally innocent citizens.
Don’t trust Pakistan and Turkey. Their leaders are corrupt. Next number is of Pakistan and Turkey. I will be very happy when they invade these both states.
what have they done to you to be so angry:)))lol
give erdogan one chance to get to palestine to kick the squatters to kingdom come in the most gruesome manner he’ll take it without a second thought. he hates the squatters and is biding his time.
Bullshit. Erdogan doesn’t give a shot about anyone but himself. He supports Palestine when it suits him, and he supports US and Israel when it suits him.
I know the UK has sent a few marines over, but they also stated that it was to inspect the damage.
The UK, as well as Germany and others, went against the US instructions defending Iran in the nuclear deal, they are allegedly also working on a new currency system to bypass the US in dealing with Iran.
I can understand that great pressure is upon them from the Yankers, to pull out and turn against Iran, but if they did, especially on this nonsense…. they would be finished.
Since I am British, that is a no-no for me.
I have read UK news that UK have sent Royal Navy Marins to support America.
Saudi KSA selling Haj for making money. Which is haram. They are not suppose to sell haj on Islamic world. This money straight goes to America to use in war against humanity. Haj is a big issue for instability and slaughtering of innocent totally innocent humanity.
This is Haj money on which Palestinians, Syrians, Afghanis, Libyans, Sudanis, Nigerians have slaughtered.
I used to leave a glass of milk out for Santa and I know he exists because the milk was always gone in the morning.
That was my ex – he’d go in the back door and drink the milk as we were going out the front door.
the quickly disintegrating states of A is at its wit’s end and if the first video was laughed off the court then they’ll do a second one hoping for a better reception. guess it’s shot off the louisiana offshore oil port; loop, just a day or two ago. and as before – it’s proof of nothing except the mendacious way the neo-nazis are employing!
still think a multibillionaire from the middle east or an afghani warlord rich from the opium trades ought to put a bounty on fatso’s and bolton’s respective heads, 10million bucks will do it – good riddance.
But it also could be an inspection, to see what the f…. happened, and isnt this in Iranian waters anyway, quic responce boats, and to then asume this, video, shows something, while again, regarding circumatances, and that rescue operation where the people could shed some light on what happened, all this will and could take place imidiatly after an so called mine attack, again it simply dont hold, wankeedoodles and droolers, tight, ducktape is one thing to keep shit floating longer than usual, but this narrative witch the Wankees create is based upon videos, images suddenly improving, showing us something. Yeah, in an world of everything goes, this may well go, remeber, from incubatores, to viagra pills an mass, no shame in that is created, and they seemingly isnt able to realise we have seen the scam so many times before, it getts f….. blurry, wankeeboy.
In here, is nothing, and everybody knows it, what lacks is balls to just say it, this, is becoming an sherade, an despicable Punch and Judy show, the freak version on steroids 2.0, and the world got ear shattering numb.
peace
Iran did it with blessings from putin no doubt .
Canadians don’t generally use their flag as symbols. You are so fake.
With what my countries leadership has been doing the last 20 years, that flag is as good as toilet paper.
Were fucken sellouts. White helmet saudi supporting fake human rights activist sell outs!
Sad but true. David “axis-of-evil” Frum is after all Canadian.
Yes there is no.shortage of imperial arse lickers here.
I think that he’s an Ukrop paid bot.
He is one of these stupid Russophobe Ukrainian Canadians, that grew up on the bullshit stories of his Galician grandparents. These morons in Canada obsesses over Ukraine even though they are several generations removed and don’t even speak the language anymore.
Easy for idiots like toronto tonto to yammer about big bad Russkies in the safety of his mothers basement in Canada.Then go back to Ukraine and tackle the endemic corruption and basket case economy of the Ukrainians own making, plus morons like tonto would then have to learn Ukrainian. To which he is to much of an intellectual dullard like most Anglo speaking Canadians are when it come learning other languages.
Haha im glad you bring up unilingual canadians’ intransigence towards learning another language.
This is a very hot topic in my province of New Brunswick. We could talk about this subject for decades!
(((toronto tonto)))
He is one of those Russophobe Ukrainian Canadian morons that taint the already lousy Canadian foreign policy, in the government of 51st state of Canada.
Again fuck off Russophobe shitstain, and again why are you still in Canada. Don’t you have Ukraine to save even if don’t know the language and you are three or four generations removed. Again chickenshit, probably grown up with your grandfathers Galician bullshit Russophobe stories, just like Chrytsa Freedland, the biggest sack of shit in today’s Canadian politics.
Yes Chrysta is a huge sack of shit. Who the.fuck put this dumb bimbo at foreign affairs.
Privy Council decision i bet you, guess whose riding i live in?? (:)))))
Claymores have a sign “front toward enemy”, do limpet mines have a sign “clamp under water line”? And then, to rock up with a boat of your mates to extract a mine from the side of a ship? Not even plausible. Not a torpedo either. Who’s got planes able to launch a missile attack? Of course, the US has.
Of course, the US has, as does Israel and the Saudis themselves.
Put the “evidence” before the UNSC. Maybe a vial of white powder can be waved by Bolton, just as Colin Powell did in making his fake case for WMD’s against Iraq
Gee, no more mention of the MQ-9 drone in the area? One would think they would have footage from it since it was on the scene 8 minutes after the first tanker sos and before the second was hit (according to the pentagram)… “On June 13, 2019, according to our assessment, a modified Iranian SA-7 surface-to-air missile attempted to shoot down a U.S. MQ-9 over the Gulf of Oman to disrupt surveillance of the IRGC attack on the M/T Kokuka Courageous. The MQ-9 had arrived minutes earlier at 6:20 a.m. local time at the motor tanker (M/T) Altair and had observed the ship on fire.” Now no mention of it at all…But they do have grainy B&W footage taken from an MH-60? Guess they thought better of mentioning there was an armed attack drone on the scene after the Japanese said they were attacked by a flying object. My dog could tell a better story.
The images prove Iran has speed boats and that the tanker had a hole in it. Now let me see if I understand this fully. The US, which has been gunning for Iran since ’79, has brought the war mongering psychopath Bolton on board for the task and has been making false accusations against Iran on a daily bases, attempts to use language to fill in the gaps of different images which themselves show no connection, while the sailors from the ship (more than one sailor hence the (s)) all claim the object came from the sky. Whom to believe, the eye witnesses with no grudge and/or a history of false flags to initiate wars or the intelligence (oxymoron alert) grouping of the US trying ohhhhh so hard to do Israel’s bidding. I’m going to go with the sailors from the ship just as I believed the sailors from the USS Liberty.
Totally clear, obvious, irrefutable, incredible clear, transparent evidences “WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.” Only UK and north-american people can believe this.
The photos are so obviously been photoshopped. Proving that the US was behind the attack.
go jump
Still dicking around in Canada you Ukrainian pussy.
MSM is omitting an important fact that I just pointed out to a colleague, no one mentions that it was Irani products loaded on those tankers.
So why in the world would Iran attack ships hauling its own products, when Iran is already struggling to get its good to market.
Simple questions with simple answerss.
Its not rocket science people!!!
“So why in the world would Iran attack ships hauling its own products, when Iran is already struggling to get its good to market.” For that very statement you make ! It’s called plausible deniability.. like you know we did it, but you just can’t prove it plus there are numerous elements through which we can deny our involvement building on logic and common sens i.e it is not in our interest.
Nah , i.will.kindly disagree. I dont think Iran cares about.plausible deniability, since nobody.would beleive them.anyways!
The accuser (USA) has not satisfied the burden of proof test for their claims.
A mine above the water line!!! Are you kidding me??
Ill.beleive the sailors on the ship before i beleive any US armed forces spokesperson!
Im old enough to remember the madness of 2002. My gut feeling is telling me this is the same.
It isn’t a working solution for any strong nation to just stand idly by waiting for the next batch of sanctions crying to the world “look we’re being bullied” that’s what the US (and any bully actually) will see as an encouragement to keep tightening the noose around til the point when assured that the victim is concerned about fighting back and then the bully will start bitch slapping it in the face before all and everyone will acknowledge to this new normalcy. On the other hand, a war on Iran is absolutely unfeasible, unless the US truly want to totally crumble the current world order (which is theirs). Ask yourself just a simple question: does Trump really think he could start a devastating yet unnecessary war and hope to be reelected next year ?
You may as well want to read these two articles by E.J Magnier and the other by Moon of Alabama : https://ejmagnier.com/2019/06/16/the-gulf-is-facing-a-small-scale-war-scenario-no-obvious-solution/
… Recent events – the sabotage acts at al-Fujairah (the Emirates), the attack on Aramco pipeline, the attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and the US Central Command video purporting to show Iranian boat personnel removing an unexploded Limpet mine from Kokuka Courageous – have already given the US ample pretexts for war, if the US were looking for war. If this were the case, President Donald Trump would have already ordered his military to conduct precision missile strikes similar to the attack he ordered against Syria or at least a punitive airstrike together with his close European partners. Or perhaps even prepared his army to go to war as George W. Bush did with Iraq in 2003.
– https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/how-trumps-maximum-pressure-campaign-now-works-against-him.html
We can expect that the cat and mouse game will continue throughout the next twelve month. Trump will be under pressure from both sides. Next spring or summer is the latest point for him to decide either way. Until then we will see more casualties of this new tanker war.
Iran’s enemies as well as Iran itself now have an interest that more attacks on tankers happen. But unless there is very convincing independent evidence we will never know who will have committed these. There are simply too many players who have motives and the capabilities to make such attacks happen. All of them have plausible reasons to damage more ships. All of them have plausible deniability. It is this what makes the current situation so dangerous. Luckily the problem can be easily solved.
The one who caused this conflict is Donald Trump. He is also the one who can immediately end it.
Good interesting points thank you Mahmoud!
To me these tanker wars are PR moves for the western public. I dont think iran Cares about face saving and plausible deniability stuff too much. I could be wrong, its just a feeling i have, entirely subjective yes.
I still think there are forces in the USA that want war with Iran, regardless of Trump.
Trump has been painted into a corner by Bolton, i would start by firing him immediatly
I like Magnier he.is a good author.
Trump will.not get re elected if war with Iran starts!
Wich to.the democrats seem like a great idea!!
Iran hit back by dismantling an intel.network, SF had a story on this yesterday.
Thats would be plausible deniability, not hitting some tankers with the us navy watching.
That is not correct, you can and I did look up the route the Kokuka Courageous took, and it was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Asia.
I just tried to bring up the exact details again, but that is no longer available.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:5502927/zoom:14
Cool , I was wrong, where did i get the idea it was Iranian products.on these ships I wonder?
Thanks for the correction, much appreciated!
Cheers
I recommend you to read this excellent article by Elijah J. Magnier https://ejmagnier.com/2019/06/16/the-gulf-is-facing-a-small-scale-war-scenario-no-obvious-solution/
Moon of Alabama also has a very interesting take of the situation https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/how-trumps-maximum-pressure-campaign-now-works-against-him.html
CNN has the same “take of the situation” as MOA and Magnier :
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/middleeast/iran-analysis-sam-kiley-intl/
That tells me all I need to know about this “take”.
Magnier’s and MoA articles predates that of CNN just to say.. and one couldn’t seriously accuses the formers of being on the same side of the later.
“…..and one couldn’t seriously accuses the formers of being on the same side of the later.”
Yes , one could. One could have done the same thing with Mother Jones well before the rest of the world figured out they’d turned from reliably progressive into an Establishment rag.
Almost everyone sells out eventually. It’s the nature of Americans that , almost without exception , they all have their price.
The removal of a mine. If that’s what it even is. There’s no close up of it. Doesn’t prove that the Iranians placed it there. If the US knew that the mine was there. Why didn’t they conduct their own on site investigation? Rather than allow an Iranian ordnance disposal team to mitigate the threat and prevent further damage?
Would the US lie? http://images.politico.com/global/2014/09/25/colinpowell_anthrax_1160.jpg
https://www.activistpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CIA-LIES-1392×731-1024×538-1.jpg
“The Niger uranium forgeries were forged documents initially released in 2001 … which seem to depict an attempt made by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium powder from Niger during the Iraq disarmament crisis. On the basis of these documents and other indicators, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom asserted that Iraq violated United Nations sanctions against Iraq by attempting to procure nuclear material for the purpose of creating weapons of mass destruction. …
Days before the Iraq invasion, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voiced serious doubt on the authenticity of the documents to the UN Security Council, judging them counterfeit.”
– Niger uranium forgeries –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries
To install the limpet mine on the hull at the location that it was allegedly removed from would have required a similarly obvious operation : a small boat with a crew , “nail guns” that penetrate steel plate , etc.
We’re supposed to believe that nobody on the tanker crew , nor any of the surveillance assets that are constantly focused on this region , would have noticed this ?
C’mon. If you want to pull something , don’t pull my leg , pull something that will give me a bit of pleasure out of the deal. I deserve that much after listening to all your lies.
It is so obvious that the damage the US claims was done by a mine was not an explosive. It is so obviously impact damage, and yet not a single person in the western media is brave enough to call them out.
I’m assuming that these big ships have collision avoidance radar, sonar and and cameras as part of their navigation and security suite. And that boats coming up to the ship and placing objects on the hull would set off alarms.
Why dont their say usa releasing more lies.Fake news as usual with fabrigaded propaganda.
How did their get their fortages.
CGI.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/823758fcdd276f5cb5ecf47fddd613b07cdf80d0d050cc233641a2f18e999706.jpg
There, here’s the evidence. I fixed it for you! :)
”Evidence” with Mossad fingerprint.
Its very typical the US never presents evidence never in any case for anything. We all know that we must take their word for it. But when you see the US with shit a this presenting EVIDENCE well that’s when the US is really trying to masquerade something.