French investigators bound for Yemen after fire
French investigators were arriving in Yemen today after a supertanker was gutted by an explosion and fire in a possible terrorist attack.
Yemeni officials have said the blaze was an accident caused by an oil leak, but the French ship’s owner said it was a “deliberate act”.
French officials said it was too early to rule out terrorism.
The fire which raged onboard the Limburg for hours yesterday was put out today.
“The fire has been extinguished. We believe the explosion happened from within the tanker, but investigations are still underway,” a Yemeni official said.
Strong winds overnight had pushed the tanker further out to sea and away from its destination, Mina al-Dabah, a port close to the city of Al Mukalla, about 200 miles southeast of the capital San‘a.
The Yemeni official said Yemeni and French investigators would cooperate in the probe. Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal has formed a special committee to investigate the blast.
Operations at the port were normal today, with no security forces or coast guard in sight and commercial fishing boats heading out to sea.
According to Yemeni officials, the captain of the Limburg said the fire started on his tanker and an explosion went off while crewmen tried to get the blaze under control.
In France, officials with Euronav, the company that owns the Limburg, said their understanding was that the captain, Hubert Ardillon, saw a small fishing boat pulling up to the tanker before the blast at 9:15 am (Irish time).
The officials speculated that the fishing boat could not have caused such a huge blast unless it was carrying explosives.
There were also reports that the explosion occurred as a pilot boat was readying to escort the tanker into Mina al-Dabah.
“We believe it was a deliberate act. It was not an accident,” Euronav director Jacques Moizan said.
In 2000, a small boat laden with explosives rammed the USS Cole as it refuelled at another Yemeni port, Aden, triggering a blast that killed 17 US sailors. That attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida, the terror network accused of carrying out the September 11 attacks.
Yemen has been eager to emphasise its commitment to the US-led war on terror and shake off its reputation as a hotbed of extremism.
It is believed to have been a base for suspected al-Qaida members and is the bin Laden family’s ancestral home.
Security has been tightened at Yemeni ports since the attack on the Cole.
The Bahrain-based Maritime Liaison Office, which co-ordinates communication between the US Navy and the commercial shipping community in the Gulf and Arabian Sea, issued an advisory in September warning ships of the possibility al-Qaida was planning attacks on oil tankers.
A Bahrain-based spokesman for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which has aircraft carriers, destroyers and other ships in the Gulf and Arabian Sea, said the French tanker’s fire had prompted no changes in US security measures.
Euronav said the Limburg’s crew of 25 included eight French and 17 Bulgarians. One Bulgarian was missing and the rest of the crew were in a hotel in Yemen, said Alain Ferre, Euronav’s financial and administrative director.
Ferre said some crew members jumped into the water and were rescued, while others first tried to put out the fire.
The Yemeni government asked the Canadian oil firm Nexen to help clean up an oil spill that resulted from the fire and explosion.
The Malaysian firm Petronas said it had chartered the Limburg. Petronas said it had loaded about 400,000 barrels of crude in Saudi Arabia and was planning to load anther 1.5 million barrels in Yemen, cargo purchased for the Malaysian Refining Company in Melaka, Malaysia.
