UAE official: Japanese tanker was in a collision

By ADAM SCHRECK Associated Press Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The chief official at the port where a Japanese tanker was docked a day after it was damaged while sailing out of the Persian Gulf says investigators now believe the ship may have been involved in a collision.

Captain Musa Murad told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators are examining the ship in the port of Fujairah, where he is director general.

He says previous reports the damage could have been caused by a large wave or earthquake proved "not correct." The ship's owner had said an attack may have been to blame in Wednesday's incident.

A photo by Emirates' state news agency WAM showed a square-shaped dent on the rear starboard side of the ship's hull. Murad says there is also damage and leaking water inside the tanker.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese shipping company said it did not believe a wave caused an explosion aboard one of its tankers passing through the mouth of the Persian Gulf, but refused to speculate Thursday on what set off the blast until it had more information.

The incident aboard the M. Star supertanker happened shortly after midnight as it entered the Strait of Hormuz, heading out of the Gulf, Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said.

Authorities on both sides of the narrow Strait of Hormuz dismissed suggestions of a deliberate strike, pointing instead to natural causes, such as an unusually strong wave that slammed into the side of the ship. The U.S. naval fleet that patrols the region said the cause of the blast remains unclear.

A photo released by the Emirates state news agency WAM after the tanker arrived in Fujairah port for inspections showed a large, square-shaped dent beginning near the waterline on the rear starboard side of the ship's hull.

Mitsui said the explosion seemed to be caused by "an attack from external sources" while the tanker passed through Omani waters in the western part of the strategically vital waterway, a narrow chokepoint between Oman and Iran at the Gulf's mouth.

"We do not think the cause of explosion was due to freak waves," Mitsui spokeswoman Eiko Mizuno said in Tokyo. "Waves can capsize vessels, but not cause explosions."

A Japanese transport ministry official in charge of crisis management declined to comment Thursday.

If the tanker was attacked, it would be a rare assault on a merchant ship in the Gulf or at the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for about 40 percent of oil shipped by tankers worldwide.

Al-Qaida has in the past carried out attacks on oil infrastructure on land in nearby Saudi Arabia, as well as a 2002 suicide bombing against a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

One of the tanker's 31 crew members noticed a flash of light right before the explosion, suggesting something may have struck the vessel. The explosion occurred at the back of the tanker, near an area where rescue boats are stored, causing cuts to a crew member who was struck with broken glass.

Yuki Shimoda, an official at Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said earlier that the ministry did not immediately suspect an attack, but added that the possibility could not be ruled out.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, 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, the ministry said. After the blast, the tanker headed to the Emirati port of Fujairah under its own power.

The Emirates' official state news agency WAM quoted Fujairah port director Musa Murad as saying the tanker sustained damage when it was hit by a large wave caused by a tremor.

Ataollah Sadr, an Iranian shipping official, also said the damage was likely caused as a result of an earthquake and rejected the possibility of a terrorist attack, according to Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency.

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Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Dubai and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed reporting.