Word: tanker
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...mines, discovered after one blasted a hole in the U.S.-owned tanker Texaco Caribbean, added a lethal new twist to Washington's showdown with Iran. The explosives were the first to be found in the Gulf of Oman, a vital staging area for ships plying the Persian Gulf. Although the U.S.-escorted Bridgeton struck what appeared to be an Iranian mine last month, that mishap occurred hundreds of miles inside the Persian Gulf. One result of the new danger was a change of heart by Britain and France, which decided to rush minesweepers to the region after...
...days later the Texaco Caribbean was slowly steaming south through the Gulf of Oman. Flying the Panamanian flag, the tanker had just loaded up with Iranian oil at Larak Island terminal in the Persian Gulf. Suddenly, eight miles from the United Arab Emirates' port of Fujairah, an explosion rocked the ship, ripping a gash ten feet wide in its hull. As oil oozed into the sea and sailors hosed down the deck, the Texaco Caribbean limped farther offshore to avoid contaminating nearby beaches with oil. Western diplomats speculated that the device was intended for the U.S.-escorted tanker convoy, which...
...discovery of the floating bombs in an area once considered safe immediately halted tanker traffic. Oman and the United Arab Emirates quickly dispatched boats and helicopters to hunt for the mines. Gunners tried to explode the devices by blasting them with rifle and cannon fire. Despite the efforts, a small commercial supply ship blew up late last week, apparently after hitting a mine off the coast of Oman...
...military questions alone threatened to be an enormously nuanced exercise. Some strategists have already been severely critical of the Administration for failing to hit back at Iran when the reflagged tanker Bridgeton struck a mine last month. "We should have pulverized Farsi Island," fumed Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser. "All this power cringing in the area is a terrible embarrassment...
...believe that it is quite likely, in fact almost certainly, the Iranians who left those mines there, presumably in hopes of placing them in front of our most recent tanker-escort group," said chief spokesman Robert Sims...