• 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> 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> 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> (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> On June 13, just a day after a missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia hit Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia, injuring 26 people, the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet came to the assistance of two oil tankers in a "reported attack in the Gulf of Oman."

The ships were damaged near the Strait of Hormuz, a month after four tankers were sabotaged in the region in attacks attributed by the U.S. and its allies to Iranian forces or proxies.

The BBC quoted Wu I-fang, a spokesman for Taiwan's state oil refiner CPC Corp, which chartered one of the ships [the Norwegian-owned Front Altair] saying that it was carrying 75,000 tonnes of naphtha and was 'suspected of being hit by a torpedo', although this has not been confirmed. Other unverified reports suggested a mine attack."

The operator of the other ship, the Panama-flagged Kokuka Courageous, said "its crew had been rescued by a passing vessel... The tanker was carrying methanol and was not in danger of sinking."

Iran's foreign minister Javed Zarif tweeted that "suspicious doesn't begin to describe what likely transpired this morning," drawing links between the "reported attacks on Japan-related tankers" while Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe for "extensive and friendly talks," implying that the attack was executed by others and was intended to cause issues for Iran. Zarif has accused Israel and Saudi Arabia of such false flag activities in the past.

Spokesperson Josh Frey of the 5th Fleet said in a statement: "U.S. naval forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 06:12 local time (08:12 GMT) and a second one at 07:00. US Navy ships are in the area and are rendering assistance."

There were varying reports of the vessels being ablaze, and even some reports in the Iranian press that one of the ships had sunk. Both vessels were evacuated and the crews were safe.

Oil prices rose 4% in response to reports of the attack.

These latest tanker attacks will escalate already rising tensions in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Abha International Airport. Responding to that attack, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman said "appropriate measures will be taken to confront and deter these terrorist militias. We will stand against all those that aim to inflict harm on our security and interests, and we will continue to adhere to all international laws and norms to protect regional security and stability."

According to the Arab News, "the day before the attack, a spokesman for the Houthi military warned that the group planned to target every airport in Saudi Arabia and that the coming days would reveal 'big surprises'."

Prince Khalid bin Salman added that "the Iranian regime is the only party in the region that has been pursuing reckless escalation, through the use of ballistic missiles and UAVs to directly target civilian installations and innocent civilians. The continuation of the Iranian regime’s aggression and reckless escalation, whether directly or through its militias, will result in grave consequences."

With the airport attack being attributed to Iranian proxies, the question now is whether the same will be true for this latest tanker attack and, if so, what response that might prompt in the tinderbox region. The challenge for Iran is the extent to which it exercises genuine control over its regional proxies. And, as a result, the risk in the region remains that with tensions sky-high and military resources ramping up, the autonomous actions of a proxy might trigger a more serious skirmish. As I've written before, it would be foolish to think that anyone is in control of what happens next. </s> (CNN) Four ships were targeted on Sunday near the strategic Emirati port of Fujairah, in what the UAE described as a "sabotage attack." One was flying a UAE flag, and another the Norwegian flag. The other two were tankers owned by Saudi Arabia, which described the incident as a threat to the security of global oil supplies.

There were no injuries or deaths, according to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It did not elaborate on the nature of the alleged sabotage, or offer any indication as to who might be responsible.

Tensions have risen in the oil-rich region in recent weeks amid the deployment of a growing number of United States military assets to the Middle East, due to deteriorating relations with Iran

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said Monday that the incidents were "alarming and regrettable," and requested further information on the alleged sabotage. He also warned against "plots by ill-wishers to disrupt regional security" and called for "vigilance of regional states in the face of any adventurism by foreign elements."

Several US officials are cautioning there is no final conclusion on how the ships were damaged. One US official pointed out the lack of detail from the UAE and Saudi Arabia about how the ships were damaged.

In a tweet, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said investigations in the incident were ongoing but that the government had its "own readings and conclusions."

"The international community (needs to) assume its responsibilities to prevent any parties trying to undermine the security and safety of maritime traffic," the ministry said.

What we know

The incident took place near UAE territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, east of the emirate of Fujairah, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said. The ministry added that authorities were working with local and international bodies to investigate the incident, which it described as a "dangerous development."

Images that CNN captured of the Norwegian tanker, Andrea Victory, show damage sustained to the hull of the vessel. In a statement Monday, Thome Ship Management, which manages the ship, confirmed it suffered hull damage after being struck by an unknown object at the waterline and said that it was not in any danger of sinking.

One of the Saudi vessels was on its way to be loaded with Saudi crude oil from the port of Ras Tanura, to be delivered to customers in the US, Saudi Arabia's state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Monday. While the agency didn't mention casualties or oil spills, it did say there had been "significant damage to the structures of the two vessels."

On Monday, the UAE formally asked the US for technical assistance in assessing the vessels' damage, according to a US official. The US experts will look at the damage patterns, try to recover any material from the site, and determine if some kind of missile or weapon hit the ships.

A Monday photo shows the oil tanker "Amjad," one of two Saudi-owned vessels Riyadh says were sabotaged.

Rumblings about Iran

Last week, the US Maritime Administration issued an advisory that "Iran or its proxies" could be targeting commercial vessels and oil production infrastructure in the region. The warning followed Iran's announcement that it was partially withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal , the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the US itself unilaterally exited one year ago.

US Air Force F-15s and F-35s, along with B-52 bombers, are now flying visible air patrols over the Persian Gulf, according to a US official, who said that the flights were designed to demonstrate to both Iran and US allies that US forces are in a deterrence mode.

Several officials say that the US is continuing to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) flights in the Middle East.

Also on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled a planned visit to Moscow on Monday and flew to Brussels for talks on Iran with his counterparts from the UK, Germany, France.

Asked later that day if the US was going to war with Iran and if the US was seeking regime change there, Trump said, "We'll see what happens with Iran."

The Strait of Hormuz: A strategic passage

Iran borders the Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf) and the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important waterway

The US Energy Information Administration calls the Strait of Hormuz "the world's most important oil transit chokepoint," with an estimated 20% of oil traded worldwide moving through the channel, which is about 30 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih described the incident as a deliberate attempt to "undermine the freedom of maritime navigation, and the security of oil supplies to consumers all over the world."

A senior source at Saudi Arabia's ministry of energy told CNN that the attacks were particularly alarming because the tankers were targeted outside the Strait of Hormuz.

UAE denied earlier reports

The accusations of sabotage come less than 24 hours after the UAE government denied reports alleging that seven oil tankers were involved in an explosion in the port of Fujairah on Sunday morning.

The reports were carried first by Lebanon's pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen satellite channel and later picked up by Iran's state-owned Press TV and other outlets.

"The operations at the port are going as normal," a statement from the Emirates News Agency said Sunday. "Media outlets must be responsible and rely on official sources."

The "Al-Marzoqah" tanker belongs to the privately-owned Dubai-based Red Sea Marine Services firm, which was established in Jeddah in 1987.

In a statement Sunday, the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned those reported "sabotage operations," with council General Secretary Abdul Latif bin Rashid al-Zayani calling the incident a "dangerous escalation (that) speaks of the evil intentions" of whoever carried out the attack. </s> (Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )- A Japanese tanker, one of two vessels attacked in sensitiveGulf waters this week, was heading to port Saturday, its owners said.The United Arab Emirates called on world powers "tosecure international navigation and access to energy" after the incidentThursday, which sent crude prices soaring amid a tense standoff between Iranand the US.The Kokuka Courageous was carrying highly flammable methanolthrough the Gulf of Oman when was rocked by explosions, causing a blaze thatwas quickly extinguished.US President Donald Trump said the twin attack, which alsotargeted a tanker owned by Oslo-listed company Frontline, had Iran"written all over it".He was speaking hours after the US military released grainyfootage it said showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an "unexplodedlimpet mine" from one of the tankers.Iran has repeatedly threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, anarrow seaway vital to the world's oil supplies, in the case of a conflict withthe US.But the UAE's Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed AlNahyan, whose country is bitterly opposed to Iranian influence in the region,called Saturday for a de-escalation in tensions."We remain hopeful in attaining a broader framework forcooperation with Iran," he said at a summit in Bulgaria.Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said an"international consensus" was needed to resolve the situation.The Japanese tanker's Tokyo-based operator Kokuka confirmedSaturday the vessel was heading to port in the United Arab Emirates."We still don't know if the tanker goes to Khor Fakkanor Fujairah as they are very close," said a spokesman, referring to twoEmirati ports on the Gulf of Oman.Maritime experts would then seek to transfer its highlyflammable cargo to shore, according to an unnamed official quoted by Japanesestate media."From a viewpoint of global energy security, it isnecessary for the international community to jointly deal with the act,"said Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko at a G20 energy and environmentmeeting in Japan on Saturday.The other ship which came under attack, theNorwegian-operated Front Altair, was being towed away from Iranian waters andwould undergo a damage assessment later Saturday, said a spokeswoman for itsoperator."The 23 crew members of the 'Front Altair' remain safeand well, with plans being made for their repatriation soonest," sheadded.'Allegations against Iran'Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted thatthe US had "immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without ashred of factual or circumstantial evidence."The United States has also accused Iran over May 12 sabotageattacks on four tankers anchored in the Gulf of Oman off Fujairah.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for anindependent investigation."It's very important to know the truth (and) thatresponsibilities are clarified," he told reporters at UN headquarters inNew York."Obviously that can only be done if there is anindependent entity that verifies those facts."The oil tankers hit Thursday morning were 10 nautical milesapart and headed to Asia when they were struck by explosions after passingthrough the Strait of Hormuz, some 25 nautical miles off Iran's southern coast.The Front Altair was carrying naphtha, a refined petroleumproduct, when it was hit by three explosions, according to Norwegian officials.Blocking the Strait of Hormuz would be a relativelylow-tech, high-impact countermeasure Iran could take against any attack by theUnited States, and would severely disrupt global oil supplies.But Trump played down the threat."It's not going to be closed, it's not going to beclosed for long and they know it. They've been told in very strong terms,"he said. </s> Oil Tankers Attacked Near Oman Are Now in U.A.E. Waters

(Bloomberg) -- Damaged oil tankers that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday are now near the United Arab Emirates ports of Kalba and Fujairah.
• Front Altair arrived in the early hours of Monday morning, according to tanker tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Operator Frontline said it would assess the vessel’s condition and consider a ship-to-ship transfer of its cargo.
• Kokuka Courageous was towed by the USS Bainbridge to the same area on Saturday, according to a Fifth Fleet spokesman and the data.

The attacks have heightened fears of more assaults on commercial vessels after four ships were targeted off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last month. The U.S. deployed naval and air force assets to the region in response to the elevated risk.

Iranian forces were likely responsible for Thursday’s strikes, according to a report from DNK, the insurer of one of the ships. The Norwegian insurer raised its risk assessment for the region and said anti-ship missiles fired from a naval asset were probably used in the attacks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Verity Ratcliffe in Dubai at vratcliffe1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Mohammed Aly Sergie
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.