- News>
- World
Boat debris found on gutted French tanker off Yemen
Mukalla, Yemen, Oct 11: A French inspector said on Thursday debris of what could be an attacking boat had been found on the supertanker holed and gutted by an explosion off Yemen.
Mukalla, Yemen, Oct 11: A French inspector said on Thursday debris of what could be an attacking boat had been found on the supertanker holed and gutted by an explosion off Yemen.
"We found debris of a boat which obviously does not belong to the tanker," Jean-Francois Perrouty told after examining the ship. He said the debris was made of fiberglass. A French Foreign Ministry statement said the first results of the probe seemed to show the blast on the French-flagged Limburg on Sunday was due to an attack.
A Yemeni cabinet minister said later on Thursday however that the debris could have come from one of the ship's own lifeboats which had been destroyed in the blast. "The inspectors have indeed found fiberglass parts on board the tanker today, but they might be from a rescue boat that belonged to the tanker itself," the official Yemeni news agency Saba quoted Transport Minister Saeed Yafai as saying.
He said the investigators had agreed to send the debris for laboratory examination. Earlier, as US, French and Yemeni anti-terror teams examined the supertanker for evidence, Yemen said for the first time a guerrilla attack could have caused the blast on Sunday.
Yemen, trying to shed an image as a haven for Islamic militants, had maintained an accidental fire caused the tanker blast in the Gulf of Aden, not an attack similar to the suicide bombing of the US warship Cole in Yemen's Aden port in 2000.
But Yafai told a news conference in Mukalla earlier on Thursday it was possible the blast that gouged the ship's hull had been deliberate.
Bureau Report
"We found debris of a boat which obviously does not belong to the tanker," Jean-Francois Perrouty told after examining the ship. He said the debris was made of fiberglass. A French Foreign Ministry statement said the first results of the probe seemed to show the blast on the French-flagged Limburg on Sunday was due to an attack.
A Yemeni cabinet minister said later on Thursday however that the debris could have come from one of the ship's own lifeboats which had been destroyed in the blast. "The inspectors have indeed found fiberglass parts on board the tanker today, but they might be from a rescue boat that belonged to the tanker itself," the official Yemeni news agency Saba quoted Transport Minister Saeed Yafai as saying.
He said the investigators had agreed to send the debris for laboratory examination. Earlier, as US, French and Yemeni anti-terror teams examined the supertanker for evidence, Yemen said for the first time a guerrilla attack could have caused the blast on Sunday.
Yemen, trying to shed an image as a haven for Islamic militants, had maintained an accidental fire caused the tanker blast in the Gulf of Aden, not an attack similar to the suicide bombing of the US warship Cole in Yemen's Aden port in 2000.
But Yafai told a news conference in Mukalla earlier on Thursday it was possible the blast that gouged the ship's hull had been deliberate.
Bureau Report