• An oil tanker is on fire after it was hit by apparent attacks in the Gulf of Oman.
• A tanker owned by Norwegian company Frontline is on fire and the company that chartered the ship said it is “suspected of being hit by a torpedo,” but Frontline said that the crew is safe.
• A second tanker, also damaged in a “suspected attack,” has been evacuated, with one person injured.
• The US and UK Navies are responding to the incidents in the waters off Iran, an important oil-carrying route that has seen tensions between Iran and US tankers.

A photo shows an oil tanker on fire off the coast of Iran after two oil tankers in the region were hit by unexplained attacks.

The image, published by Iranian state media, shows the burning Front Altair, a tanker owned by Norwegian company Frontline that has now been evacuated.

Frontline told Reuters on Thursday that the shop was on fire but that its crew had been rescued. It denied reports that the ship sank.

Taiwan’s state oil refiner CPC, which had chartered the ship, said that it was “suspected of being hit by a torpedo.”

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement also told Reuters that a second tanker, the Kokuka Courageous was damaged, in a “suspected attack.”

The company said in a statement said that the 21 crew members “abandoned ship” after the ship’s hull was damaged. One cew member was “slightly injured,” it said.

Read more: Oil is surging after a suspected torpedo attack on 2 tankers in the Gulf of Oman

It said that the ship, which is 14 nautical miles from Iran’s coast, is “remains in the area and is not in any danger of sinking.” The methanol it was transporting, which is a flammable substance, is “intact,” it said.

The company said it has “launched a full-scale emergency response.”

A US Navy fleet said it was aware of a “reported attack” on the vessells after it recieved two separate distress calls. It said its ships are “in the area and rendering assistance.” Reuters reported that a part of the UK’s Royal Navy said it was investigating.

Oil prices are rising after the incident.

A source told Reuters that the Bernhard Schulte tanker may have been hit by a mine.

The US claimed earlier in June that Iran attacked four oil tankers with limpet mines, but Iran denies the charge.

The Gulf of Oman leads to the Strait of Hormuz, which is shared by Iran and Oman and where a third of the world’s oil passes through.

US ships travel through the area, though Iran has threatened to close it off and tensions have flared between the two countries with reports that oil tankers are being targeted. </s> BEIRUT — Explosions aboard a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman Thursday heightened regional tensions with Iran in an already volatile showdown with Washington and sent energy prices soaring in jittery global markets.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo quickly blamed Tehran for what he called “a blatant assault” and cited the action as the “terror, bloodshed and extortion” that is part of Iranian strategy.

The apparent attacks, a month after four other tankers were damaged in mine explosions that the Trump administration also blamed on Iran — without providing evidence — sharply raised fears in the strategically important region that Washington might use such incidents to punish the Islamic Republic even without ironclad proof of its involvement.

Pompeo told reporters in Washington that the assessment was based on U.S. intelligence, the type of weapons used, the level of expertise needed and that none of Iran’s proxy groups, which operate in countries across the region, had the resources to carry out an apparent attack like Thursday’s.

“These attacks are a threat to international peace and security, a blatant assault on the freedom of navigation, and an unacceptable escalation of tension by Iran,” Pompeo said.

He did not elaborate, offer details or take questions in his brief appearance before reporters at the State Department.

U.S. military officials said later there was evidence the Iranians carried out the attacks using mines.

To bolster that claim, late Thursday the military released video taken by a Navy surveillance plane that it said showed a crew from an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from the hull of the Kokura Courageous 10 hours after the ship was stricken by an explosion.

The grainy black and white video shows a small boat alongside the tanker. Several crew members are seen near the bow as one pulls a small object off the hull.

At 4:10 p.m. a patrol boat from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps approached the Kokura Courageous and “was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine,” said the statement by Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

A limpet mine is a naval weapon that attaches to a ship with magnets.

Urban said the U.S. also observed Iranian small boats swarmed around the other damaged tanker, the Front Altair, demanding that the ship’s crew, who had been rescued by another vessel, be turned over to them.

The rescuers, from a ship called the Hyundai Dubai, “complied with the request and transferred the crew” to the Iranians, Urban said.

Hours earlier, dozens of crew members were rescued after explosions on the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous and the Front Altair, owned by Norway. Iran has denied any connection with the incident.

The suspected attack on a Japanese-owned vessel came less than a day after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a rare conciliatory visit to Tehran seeking dialogue.

The United States and its Persian Gulf allies, led by Saudi Arabia, have mounted a steady campaign of diplomatic isolation and economic punishment of Iran, which they blame for militancy in the Middle East.

Pompeo said he was instructing U.S. envoys to stress the issue in a Security Council meeting, while the United Nations’ top diplomat separately urged a return to calm.

“I strongly condemn any attack against civilian vessels. Facts must be established, and responsibilities clarified,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a Security Council meeting on cooperation with the Arab League.

“If there is something the world cannot afford, it is a major confrontation in the Gulf region,” Guterres said.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League’s secretary-general, warned there were sides seeking to “inflame the region, and practice a kind of dangerous blackmail of the international community.”

The Egyptian also called upon the U.N. Security Council to confront whoever is behind the suspected attack so the perpetrator could face “all legal responsibility.”

On Thursday morning, the Front Altair and the Kokuka Courageous were sailing in international waters in the Gulf of Oman when they suffered apparent attacks about 25 miles off the southern coast of Iran that led to explosions on board.

The Front Altair reported three detonations, according to a statement Thursday from the Norwegian Maritime Authority. It was not clear what caused the blasts, but they were serious enough to cause a major fire.

Images depicted the Front Altair engulfed in a 15-mile plume of smoke that was captured by NASA satellites; later pictures showed more than a third of the deck scorched, and a video showed a raging fire in the ship’s center.

The crews — 23 on the Front Altair and 21 on the Kokuka Courageous — were forced to abandon their ships, but had been evacuated and were safe, according to press statements by the vessels’ owners.

The U.S. Navy, according to a statement released by U.S. Central Command, had rescued the 21 mariners from the Japanese vessel.

Iran earlier had said that it had rescued all 44 of the ships’ crew members.

Sailors aboard the Bainbridge, the U.S. Navy destroyer that went to assist the Kokuka Courageous, saw a device that appeared to be an unexploded mine above the waterline on the hull of the tanker and photographed it, a U.S. official said.

After the captain of the Kokuka Courageous was alerted to the device, he ordered the crew to abandon the damaged ship, a U.S. official said.

Possible use of naval mines to attack the tankers was one piece of information that led U.S. intelligence agencies to reach a preliminary conclusion that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was responsible for the alleged attacks, one of the officials said.

Last month, Trump administration officials blamed Iran for suspected attacks that damaged four oil tankers off the United Arab Emirates, citing undisclosed evidence that the Revolutionary Guard carried out the attacks using limpet mines.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton has promised to provide evidence to the Security Council proving Iran’s culpability, but has yet to do so.

Regardless of who was behind Thursday’s suspected attacks, they triggered a 3 percent increase in world energy prices.

The explosions occurred near the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as a crucial passageway for much of the oil from Gulf states. At its narrowest it measures a mere 21 nautical miles, yet in 2016 it ushered through some 18.5 million barrels of oil per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Those numbers make it an important choke point; any conflict there would have a staggering effect on trade.

While details of Thursday’s suspected attacks were not clear, said the Norwegian Maritime Authority, it urged Norwegian ships to “exercise extreme caution in the region” and to “keep a safe distance from Iranian waters.” It also raised its security level in the area.

Also unclear was what Iran would gain from such an assault — coinciding with Abe’s high-profile visit to Tehran aimed at salvaging the 2015 international nuclear deal.

Both ships, according to the Japanese government, were carrying “Japan-related” cargo, leading Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to question the timing of Thursday’s apparent attacks.

“Suspicious,” he tweeted, “doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning.”

Meanwhile, Abe had brought a message from President Donald Trump to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

Khamenei rejected the letter, saying Iran had “no trust” in the U.S. and that it would “not repeat the bitter experience” of negotiations, in a reference to the 2015 nuclear deal that was repudiated by Trump.

Khamenei also said he considered Trump an unworthy person with whom to strike up a correspondence.

“I do not have and will not have any response for him,” said Khamenei.

Nevertheless, he again emphasized Iran was not seeking the development or use of nuclear weapons.

The Trump administration’s quick public assertion that Iran was behind the latest suspected attacks concerned some senior U.S. officers, who said they feared that the administration was moving too quickly toward retaliating, possibly with military force, without building a public case that Tehran was responsible.

Another option for the U.S. short of military action would be to seek to build international support for steps to safeguard shipping traffic, using naval ships from the U.S. and other countries to escort tankers and other vessels through the Persian Gulf and into the Arabian Sea.

Pentagon officials said they were worried that Iran and its proxies could conduct its own reprisals against U.S. forces or allies in the region if Washington escalates the confrontation.

“We will defend our interests, but a war with Iran is not in our strategic interest, nor in the best interest of the international community,” said Army Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.

The Pentagon, nevertheless, has substantially increased its forces in the region recently.

Early last month, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its strike group of ships arrived in waters near the Persian Gulf in response to what U.S. officials said was intelligence suggesting Iran was preparing attacks.

In late May, a fighter squadron, manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, engineering units and additional Patriot anti-missile batteries — comprising 1,500 troops altogether — were added. An amphibious assault ship with a Marine expeditionary unit and an Air Force B-52 bomber task force were also sent.

Another amphibious assault ship, the Arlington, with Marines aboard, arrived in the Arabian Sea this week.

Those forces are in addition to the more than 30,000 troops stationed in the region, along with hundreds of fighters and bombers at air bases in Persian Gulf countries. </s> Karim Sahib, AFP | An Emirati man looks on at the port of Fujairah in the Gulf Emirate, on May 13, 2019.

Two oil tankers were hit in suspected attacks in the Gulf of Oman and the crews have been evacuated, shipping firms and industry sources said on Thursday, a month after a similar incident in which four tankers in the region were struck.

The Bahrain-based US Navy Fifth Fleet said it was assisting the tankers after receiving distress calls following "reported attacks". The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, part of the Royal Navy, said it was investigating.

Details of the incident were not immediately clear, but one operator said it suspected its ship had been hit by a torpedo. Another shipping firm said its vessel was on fire in the Gulf of Oman.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s navy had rescued 44 crew members from the tankers, and had transferred them to the port of Jask.

Oil prices surged by 4 percent after the report that has stoked tensions in the region that have already been heightened by attacks last month on Gulf oil assets amid a dispute between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Gulf of Oman lies at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a major strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil consumption passes from Middle East producers.

There was no immediate confirmation from authorities in Oman or the United Arab Emirates, in whose territorial waters four tankers were hit last month. An investigation said limpet mines were used. US and Saudi officials blamed Iran for the May attack, a charge Tehran has denied.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said the attacks on oil assets in the Gulf posed a risk to global oil supplies and regional security.

On Thursday Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said tanker Kokuka Courageous was damaged in a "suspected attack" that breached the hull above the water line while on passage from Saudi Arabia to Singapore.

"The ship is safely afloat," it said in a statement.

Taiwan's CPC said tanker Front Altair, carrying 75,000 tonnes of naptha, was "suspected of being hit by a torpedo" around 0400 GMT. Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data showed the Front Altair, an Aframax vessel owned by Norway's Frontline, had loaded naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, and was in waters between Oman and Iran, carrying its cargo from Ruwais in the UAE to aiwan.

Frontline said its vessel was on fire in the Gulf of Oman.

The sources said crews from both vessels, which they had said had been struck in international waters, had been safely evacuated.

One shipping broker said there had been an explosion "suspected from an outside attack" that may have involved a magnetic mine on the Kokuka.

"All crew safely abandoned the vessel and were picked up by Vessel Coastal Ace. Kokuka Courageous is adrift without any crew on board,” the source said.

Another source said the Front Altair reported a fire caused by a "surface attack" and that the crew had been picked up by nearby vessel Hyundai Dubai. </s> • New photos and video show the aftermath of an alleged torpedo attack on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
• The oil tanker was evacuated on Thursday after catching fire. The company which chartered the ship said they believe it was hit by a torpedo.
• The ship was one of two that was allegedly attacked. Both have been evacuated.
• The photos show the ship on fire and covered in ash, with smoke billowing into the sky.

Photos and video of the aftermath of an alleged torpedo attack show flames, ash, and charring on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.

The imagery shows the Front Altair, a tanker owned by the Norwegian company Frontline.

It is not clear exactly what happened to leave the tanker so badly damaged. It had been chartered by Taiwan’s state oil refining company, CPC, which said the ship was “suspected of being hit by a torpedo.”

Press TV, a broadcaster funded by the government of Iran, posted aerial footage of the fire to Twitter on Thursday afternoon.

Still images, credited to Iran’s ISNA news agency and distributed by the Associated Press, show the now-abandoned ship in flames. Its crew was evacuated after the incident began.

Around half of its starboard side can be seen with fire damage. Its bridge, usually white, was blackened on one side. According to the Reuters news agency, the ship was carrying 75,000 tonnes of petrochemicals.

Undated archive photos of the ship shared by Frontline show how the ship looked before the alleged attack:

This photo shows the fire from another angle:

The ship is one of two that was allegedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

An anonymous US defense official told CBS News that it was “highly likely Iran caused these attacks.”

Read more: Oil is surging after a suspected torpedo attack on 2 tankers in the Gulf of Oman

The second ship was the Kokuka Courageous, operated by Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. It was also evacuated. The company said that the hull was damaged and one crew member was “slightly injured.”

The ship’s manager told Reuters the ship was damaged in a “suspected attack.”

The incidents have caused the price of oil to surge as the ships were in a significant oil transportation route that has seen increased tensions between US tankers and Iran.

The US last month accused Iran of attacking its oil tankers in the region, but Iran denies any involvement.

Read the full story of the apparent attacks here. </s> Shortly after the crews of the two tankers attacked this week in the Gulf of Oman evacuated their stricken vessels, the ships that rescued them were surrounded by Iranian military boats and told to transfer the mariners into their custody, according to declassified U.S. intelligence reports obtained on Friday by CBS News.

One of the civilian rescue ships eventually complied with the Iranian military's request. The other did not. The new details help to paint a picture of what happened Thursday in the Gulf, near the vital shipping channel of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a third of the world's oil supply passes.

The U.S. has accused Iran of carrying out the attacks on the tankers — the second similar incident blamed on Iran in a month. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called it "the latest in a series of attacks started by Iran and its surrogates against American and allied interests" aimed at "escalating tension."

He said the U.S. would defend its forces and interests in the region but gave no specifics about any plans for retaliation, and he took no questions.

A U.S. defense official quickly dismissed an Iranian claim on Thursday, soon after the attacks, that Iran sent search teams that rescued 44 sailors from the two vessels. The official told CBS News that claim was "patently false," and that it was an American destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, that picked up 21 crew members from one of the vessels.

The intelligence reports obtained by CBS News on Friday include a readout from the crew of the Hyundai Dubai, an oil tanker that came to the rescue when the stricken Front Altair issued a distress call after an explosion on Thursday. The crew of the Norwegian-owned Altair came aboard the Hyundai Dubai, according to the detailed readout from the rescuing vessel's crew.

About 10 minutes later, the Hyundai Dubai "was surrounded by Iranian military vessels who demanded the Ship's Master turn over the M/V FRONT ALTAIR mariners," according to the readout.

The captain of the vessel contacted his company's management, which told him to refuse the Iranian request, but the readout says he "stated he felt like he had no choice but to comply with Iranian demands" and he did hand the Front Altair's crew over to the Iranian vessels. The sailors, most of them Russian and Filipino, were taken to Iran and remained in Iranian custody, the Front Altair's owner Frontline told Reuters on Friday.

The other tanker that came under attack on Thursday was the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, which issued a distress call after sustaining an explosion that caused a fire in its engine room.

The readout from the crew of the Kokuka said a Dutch vessel responded and positioned itself to inspect the damage to the tanker.

"The Dutch vessel reported to the Master an unusual object on the Starboard side, mid-ship, of the KOKUKA. The crew looked over the side and noticed an object they believed to be an explosive. Due to the ship carrying methanol and already suffering one explosion, the Master ordered the crew to abandon ship," according to the intelligence briefing.

The Dutch vessel took the sailors from the Kokuka aboard and moved to a safe distance.

The crew of an Iranian military vessel then asked the Dutch ship for permission to board, "so they could transfer personnel and render assistance to the crew. The Master of the KOKUKA spoke to the owner of his vessel and was instructed not to go aboard the Iranian vessel so he declined aid and thanked them."

The crew of the Dutch vessel and the Kokuka were able to see attached to the tanker, as they moved away from it, a "grey explosive," described as being about five feet wide and three feet tall, which the sailors said was protruding from the hull, three to six feet over the waterline.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of using limpet mines in the attacks this week — the same magnetic explosive devices allegedly used by Iranians in attacks on four tankers in the region last month. The devices can be affixed to the hull of a vessel, and can cause significant damage to a ship. They have not, however, been powerful enough to breach the double hulled vessels sufficiently as to capsize them.

The U.S. military said Thursday it had a video showing troops from Iran's Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded limpet mine from the Kokuka. The black-and-white video, as well as still photographs released by the U.S. military's Central Command, appeared to show a limpet mine on the Kokuka.

A U.S. official told CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin on Friday that the U.S. had a forensic team aboard the Kokuka Courageous as it was being towed to port. Parts of the magnet which held the mine to the ship were still attached to the tanker's hull.

The official told CBS News that a commercial tug boat was sent to tow the Front Altair to port also, but that Iranian Navy vessels were preventing it from tying up to the tanker.

Why would Iran attack an oil tanker?

The waterways in the region are crucial to the global transportation of oil and gas: A third of all shipped oil comes through the area, and because the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway near where the attack took place, is right off the coast of Iran, it's a point of leverage for the country.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to cut off this vital artery whenever there is a dispute with the U.S. or its regional allies, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Tension between Iran and the U.S. has mounted steadily since the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the previous occupant of the White House.

As CBS News reported in early June, the admiral of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier in the region, said one of his ship's primary missions is to safeguard the free flow of commerce through the Strait and the surrounding waterways. The Lincoln was sent specifically because of perceived threats from Iran — but as CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported on Thursday, it doesn't appear to be proving much of a deterrent.

"On April 22nd, Iran promised the world it would interrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. It is now working to execute on that promise," Pompeo said Thursday.

Iran flatly denies any involvement in the tanker attacks, and has called the timing of Thursday's incidents "suspicious" as they came just as the Japanese leader was in Tehran trying to rekindle diplomacy.

Other nations, and the United Nations, have stressed the need to avoid "accidental" escalations in the region.

"I want to say how worried I am with the recent developments in the Gulf," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday. "We believe that the truth needs to be clearly established in relation to these attacks. We believe that responsibilities need to be clearly defined. And, as I said to the Security Council, the world cannot afford a major confrontation in the Gulf."

"It is very important to know the truth," Guterres said, before calling for "some independent entity" to verify the facts. He added that as secretary-general he cannot instigate an international investigation, but noted that the Security Council can. </s> (CNN) The attack on two tankers in a vital Gulf of Oman waterway Thursday comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran in the oil-rich region and raises concerns of a potential conflict in the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quick to point the finger at Iran, saying his assessment was "based on intelligence." While Iran denied involvement, the US military on Thursday released a video that it said showed an Iranian navy boat removing an unexploded mine attached to the hull of one of the tankers in an apparent attempt to recover evidence of its participation.

On Friday, however, the Japanese shipping company that owns one of the tankers said it did not believe its ship was attacked by a mine.

The incident bears similarities to an attack on May 12 when four oil tankers were targeted off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman.

Like Thursday's attack, that incident took place near the Strait of Hormuz , a vital shipping route that has been the focal point of regional tensions for decades. About 30% of the world's sea-borne crude oil passes through the strategic choke point, making it a flashpoint for political and economic friction.

Here's how the attacks played out.

On May 12, four commercial oil tankers were targeted near the strategic Emirati port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, in what the UAE described as a "sabotage attack."

One was flying a UAE flag, and another the Norwegian flag. The other two were owned by Saudi Arabia, which described the incident as a threat to the security of global oil supplies.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway told the United Nations Security Council that there were "strong indications that the four attacks were part of a sophisticated and coordinated operation carried out with significant operational capacity."

Diplomats said the assessment of the damage to the four vessels and chemical analysis of the debris recovered revealed "it was highly likely that limpet mines were deployed."

In a printed statement describing the conclusions, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Norway said the attacks required trained divers and explosive charges placed under the waterline, near the engines so as to not sink the ships or detonate their cargoes, which indicated a knowledge of the design of the targeted ships. The countries say rapid withdrawal of the plotters by fast boats indicated understanding of the geographic area.

The Norwegian Maritime Agency said that three explosions were reported on board the Marshall Islands-flagged Front Altair oil tanker, which is owned by the Bermuda-based Norwegian company Frontline. The company said that a fire broke out after an explosion and that the cause of the blast was unclear.

A second vessel, the Japanese-owned chemical tanker Kokura Courageous, was "attacked" twice "with some sort of shell," the ship's co-manager, Michio Yuube, said.

The vessels were hit "at or below the waterline, in close proximity to the engine room," said the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko).

"These appeared to be well-planned and coordinated" attacks, it added.

All 21 Philippine crew members on the Kokura Courageous were evacuated, Yuube said. The ship's Singapore-based management company, BSM, said a sailor was injured and the vessel had suffered damage to its hull.

The USS Bainbridge was nearby when the incident happened and a tug ferried crew members of the Kokuka Courageous to it. Images released by the US Central Command showed crew from the Bainbridge assisting the sailors following their rescue.

The 23 crew members of the Front Altair were picked up by a South Korean cargo ship, the Hyundai Dubai, which responded to their distress call.

According to a Hyundai Merchant Marine official, the ship's captain said in an official report that he heard three explosions prior to the Front Altair's distress call. He went outside to the dock and saw the ship was on fire. Two sailors approached the Norwegian tanker on a lifeboat and rescued the 23 crew, bringing them to the Hyundai Dubai, which has now docked in Abu Dhabi.

On Friday, the Japanese shipping company that owns the chemical tanker Kokuka Courageous said it did not believe the ship was attacked by a mine.

In a press conference Friday in Tokyo, the president of Kokuka Sangyo Marine, Yutaka Katada, said he believed "there is no possibility of mine attack as the attack is well above the naval line."

According to Katada, a crew member said the second attack came from a flying shell.

Katada said that all crew members were now back on board the tanker, which is currently tagged to the UAE city of Khor Fakkan, and were working to get electricity fully up and running.

"It is the assessment by the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today," Pompeo said in specially scheduled remarks at the State Department Thursday, as investigations into the attacks were beginning.

"This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication."

In the video, a smaller boat is shown coming up to the side of the tanker. An individual stands up on the bow of the boat and can be seen removing an object from the tanker's hull. The US says that object is likely an unexploded mine.

Another official told CNN that multiple Iranian small boats had entered the area where the Bainbridge continued to be on the scene, prompting US Central Command to issue a statement saying, "No interference with USS Bainbridge, or its mission, will be tolerated."

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the Saudis "have no reason to disagree" with Pompeo's comments blaming Iran for being behind Thursday's attacks, saying "Iran has a history of doing this."

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said "suspicious doesn't begin to describe" this latest incident, noting that one of the tankers is Japanese owned and the attack took place as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was visiting Iran in an effort to calm tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for the Iranian mission, tweeted a statement saying Iran "categorically rejects the US unfounded claim" that Iran is behind the attacks and "condemns it in the strongest possible terms."

He added that Iran "expresses concern" over the "suspicious incidents." And he called it "ironic" that the US, which withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran, was now calling Iran to come back for negotiations and diplomacy.

The UN Security Council privately discussed the latest on the attack but declined to produce any formal reaction. </s> The United States Fifth Fleet responded to suspected attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

"US naval forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 6:12 a.m. local time and a second one at 7:00 a.m.," the statement said.

"US Navy ships are in the area and are rendering assistance."

One of the ships involved was the Front Altair, a Norwegian-owned tanker that was being chartered by Taiwan's state-owned CPC Corp, the CEO of CPC's petrochemical division, Wul-Fang, told Reuters.

The ship was carrying 75,000 tonnes of naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, "when it was suspected of being hit by a torpedo," he said.

Read more: John Bolton says Iran is 'almost certainly' behind oil tanker 'attacks'

A spokesman for Frontline, the company that owns Front Altair, told Norwegian newspaper VG that the vessel was still on fire and that all 23 crew members were in safety after abandoning ship.

Singapore's BSM Management said in a statement that its Kokuka Courageous tanker had been damaged in an unspecified "security incident" while it was transporting methanol.

All 21 crew members abandoned ship and one member was slightly injured. The ship was not in danger of sinking, it added.

The reported attacks come amid heightened regional tensions following attacks on four ships off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May. The United States and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran, which dismissed the accusation.

Every evening, DW sends out a selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here. </s> U.S. Releases Video of Alleged Gulf of Oman Tanker Attacks by Sam LaGrone – USNI News

U.S. Central Command has released a video and photographs that officials say prove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy attacked two merchant tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

As a result, the U.S. is sending a second warship to the vicinity of the two merchant vessels that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, U.S. Central Command said.

Guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) is joining U.S. forces assisting a merchant tanker that has been abandoned by its crew after suffering damage from what U.S. officials are calling a deliberate attack.

Earlier Thursday, the crew of destroyer USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) rescued the crew of a tanker that was allegedly attacked in the Gulf of Oman, officials told USNI News on Thursday afternoon.

“Twenty-one mariners from the M/V Kokuka Courageous, who abandoned ship, were rescued and are currently aboard USS Bainbridge,” according to U.S. Central Command spokesman Army Lt. Col. Earl Brown.

“Bainbridge remains in close contact with the M/V Kokuka Courageous and is the on-scene U.S. command authority. No interference with USS Bainbridge, or its mission, will be tolerated.”… </s> Audio has emerged of a distress call made at the scene of one of the Gulf of Oman explosions yesterday, as the owner of the other tanker said the crew saw a 'flying object' hurtling towards them.

In the short clip, the captain of a passing cargo ship voices fears of a torpedo attack as he helps to rescue the crew of the MT Front Altair after it was hit by a blast and caught fire.

The sailor, who identifies himself as the captain of the Hyundai Dubai, gives the exact location of the Altair and says that its 23 crew members have 'safely disembarked', in the recording published by TradeWinds.

Washington alleges that Iran was behind the two blasts and published footage yesterday claiming to show an Iranian patrol boat retrieving an unexploded mine from the Kokuka.

However, the accounts of torpedoes and flying objects which are emerging from the two shipping companies do not entirely back America's findings up.

Yutaka Katada, the head of the firm which owns the Kokuka Courageous, said that 'something came flying at the ship' - casting doubt on America's theory that it was attacked with a limpet mine.

He said the unknown object punched a hole in the Kokuka Courageous, starting a fire and forcing the crew to evacuate.

The shipping firm boss said the weapon had not been a torpedo and revealed that the U.S. Navy was now escorting the stricken vessel to the UAE.

He also said it was unlikely that the ship was targeted because of its Japanese ownership - a theory hinted at by Iran as the attacks came during talks with Japan's PM yesterday.

The ship's 21 crew have since returned to the vessel and its cargo of 25,000 tonnes of methanol, destined for Singapore, is said to be undamaged.

Mr Katada, the head of the Kokuka Sangyo company, said the tanker had suffered two apparent attacks.

After the first, crew members 'made evasive manoeuvres but three hours later it was hit again,' he said.

Describing the second blast today, he said: 'The crew members are saying that they were hit by a flying object. They saw it with their own eyes.

'We have received a report saying that something seems to have flew in, there was an explosion and it created a hole in the body of the ship.'

One crew member suffered minor injuries in the blasts, which have sent Middle East tensions spiralling once again.

'Crew members went back to the ship with support of the U.S. military and recovered the backup power source,' Mr Katada said.

'We'll review the overall damage but we don't think there's a possibility it will sink. There's no damage to the goods and fuel.'

The United States has blamed Iran for attacking the Kokuka Courageous and another tanker, the Norwegian-owned Front Altair, on Thursday, but Tehran has denied the allegations.

The ship's crew saw an Iranian military ship in the vicinity on Thursday night Japan time, Katada said.

Katada said he did not believe Kokuka Courageous was targeted because it was owned by a Japanese firm. The tanker is registered in Panama and was flying a Panamanian flag, he said.

'Unless very carefully examined, it would be hard to tell the tanker was operated or owned by Japanese,' he said.

The tanker was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz, a major strategic waterway through which about one-fifth of global oil consumption passes on its way from Middle Eastern producers including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE and Kuwait as well as Iran.

'This strait is very crucial. Without this route we can not transport gasoline and heavy oil to Japan,' Katada said.

'Unless another major incident occurs, as long as we get approval from our crew, we will continue operating our tankers via this route to Saudi Arabia.'

Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said on Friday that the incidents will be discussed at a meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers this weekend.

Seko declined to comment on American officials blaming Iran, saying Japan is still investigating the incident, which occurred while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran trying to help ease rising tensions between the United States and Iran.
Two oil tankers, one Norwegian and one Japanese, are damaged and abandoned after being attacked in the Gulf of Oman, with all crew members aboard both ships safely rescued.