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A30 world news
Diahuebs 4 November 2021

Officials tell AP that Iran seized Vietnamese oil tanker

U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based showing an Iranian sur-
5th Fleet. State TV sought to veillance drone monitor-
cast the incident as an act of ing a hulking red tanker in
American aggression against the Gulf of Oman. Heavily
Iran in the Gulf of Oman, armed Iranian commandos
with the U.S. Navy detaining then rappelled onto the boat
a tanker carrying Iranian oil from a helicopter as small
and the Guard freeing it and speedboats surrounded the
bringing it back to the Islamic vessel and an Iranian catama-
Republic. ran ship patrolled the waters.
The video appeared to show
The U.S. officials dismissed Iranian Guard troops point-
Iran’s version of events. Teh- ing uncovered deck-mount-
ran also did not provide de- ed machine guns at the USS
tails of the ship’s name, nor The Sullivans, an Arleigh
any explanation of why the Burke-class guided missile
Navy might target it. Iran’s destroyer. Photos released
mission to the United Na- by the U.S. military show
tions did not immediately The Sullivans recently in the
respond to a request for com- Arabian Sea near the Gulf of
ment. Oman.
(AP) — Iran seized a Viet- as the vessel sailed into Ira- be made public amid ongo-
namese-flagged oil tanker nian waters. ing attempts to restart talks The deluge of Iranian claims The status and makeup of
in the Gulf of Oman last over Iran’s tattered 2015 nu- came as the Islamic Republic the Sothys’ crew wasn’t im-
month and still holds the A motive for the seizure re- clear deal with world powers. prepared to mark the 42nd mediately known. A shipping
vessel, two U.S. officials mains unclear. Officials at Negotiations have stalled in anniversary of the 1979 take- database showed the ves-
told The Associated Press the Vietnamese Embassy in Vienna since the election of over of the U.S. Embassy in sel’s last registered owner as
on Wednesday, revealing Washington did not imme- hard-line President Ebrahim Tehran, which triggered the OPEC Petrol Transportation
the latest provocation in diately respond to a request Raisi in June, allowing Iran 444-day hostage crisis and Co., a firm with a Hanoi ad-
Mideast waters as tensions for comment. Ship-tracking to press ahead with its nucle- bred decades of acrimony. dress. A telephone number
escalate between Iran and data analyzed by the AP from ar program and raising alarm for the company could not
the United States over MarineTraffic.com showed in Western capitals. Iran’s top Iranian officials heralded the immediately be found.
Tehran’s nuclear program. the vessel still off Iran’s nuclear negotiator said last ship’s impoundment as a
southern port of Bandar Ab- week that talks would resume heroic act, with Raisi laud- Iran’s seizure of the Southys
One of the officials said that bas on Tuesday. A satellite in November, but didn’t pro- ing the Revolutionary Guard would be the latest in a string
Iran’s powerful paramili- photo from Planet Labs Inc. vide a specific date. on Twitter. The country’s of hijackings and explosions
tary Revolutionary Guard also showed the vessel off oil minister, Javad Owji, to roil the Gulf of Oman,
troops took control of the Bandar Abbas in recent days. The officials spoke to AP af- thanked the Guard for “res- which sits near the Strait of
MV Southys on Oct. 24 at ter Iranian state television of- cuing the Iranian oil tanker Hormuz, the narrow mouth
gunpoint. U.S. forces had The two U.S. officials spoke fered a series of contradictory from American pirates.” of the Persian Gulf through
monitored the seizure, but on condition of anonymity reports about a confrontation which a fifth of all traded oil
ultimately didn’t take action as the information had yet to between the Guard and the State TV released footage passes.

UN report says Ethiopia’s war marked by ‘extreme brutality’

(AP) — All sides in Ethio- laboration by the U.N. hu- gained much of their region, Bekele said the investiga- Among the investigation’s
pia’s yearlong war in the man rights office with the but it failed to visit some of tion didn’t identify violations findings: Several Ethiopian
Tigray region have com- government-created Ethio- the deadliest sites of the war, amounting to genocide. military camps were used to
mitted abuses marked pian Human Rights Com- including the city of Axum, torture captured Tigray forces
by “extreme brutality” mission, was hampered by because of security and other Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. or civilians suspected of sup-
that could amount to war authorities’ intimidation and obstacles. Notably, the report high commissioner for hu- porting them. Others were
crimes and crimes against restrictions, and didn’t visit said, obstacles included the man rights, acknowledged detained in “secret locations”
humanity, the U.N. hu- some of the war’s worst-af- Ethiopian government’s fail- the investigators didn’t turn and military camps across the
man rights chief said fected locations. ure to release satellite phones up enough evidence to char- country, with detentions ar-
Wednesday, noting “the procured for the investiga- acterize “disturbing sugges- bitrary in many cases. Tigray
big numbers of violations” The U.N. told The Associ- tion — crucial tools as phone tions of ethnically motivated forces detained some ethnic
are linked to Ethiopian ated Press the collaboration and internet service are cut violence” as signs of possible Amhara civilians in western
forces and those from was necessary for its team to off in Tigray. genocide, but did say such al- Tigray in the early days of the
neighboring Eritrea. gain access to a troubled re- legations warranted further war on suspicion of support-
gion that Ethiopian authori- The investigation breaks little investigation. ing the military, and in some
The conflict that has killed ties have largely prevented new ground and confirms in cases tortured them.
thousands began in Novem- journalists, rights groups and general the abuses described
ber 2020 after a political fall- other observers from enter- by witnesses throughout the
ing-out between the Tigray ing. war. But it gives little sense
forces that long dominated of scale, saying only that the
the national government and The report was released a day more than 1,300 rapes report-
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s before the first anniversary of ed to authorities are likely far
current government. Ethnic the start of the war and as Af- fewer than the real number.
Tigrayans across the country rica’s second most populous
have reported being targeted country enters a new state of Despite the report’s short-
with arbitrary detentions, emergency, with rival Tigray comings, Abiy’s office said
while civilians in Tigray have forces threatening the capital, in a statement that it “clear-
described gang rapes, hu- Addis Ababa. ly established the claim of
man-caused famine and mass genocide as false and utterly
expulsions. The joint investigation cov- lacking of any factual basis.”
ers events up until late June Ethiopian Human Rights
The investigation, a rare col- when the Tigray forces re- Commission chief Daniel