Even turned away, the pictures are awesome. The u.s. army has published 13 August, a video showing the boarding of an oil tanker chemical, the M/T Wila, by iranian forces in the gulf of Oman. On the images, a military helicopter Sea King iranian deposits via a rope of the commandos on the ship, as it navigates “in international waters” according to the command of the u.s. military.
The black and white video which the sensitive data is blurred seems to have been shot at a few kilometres distance, likely from a ship in the u.s. military who was watching the scene.
Today in international waters, Iranian forces, including two ships and an Iranian “Sea King” helicopter, overtook and boarded a ship called the ‘Wila.’ pic.twitter.com/455UQ5jwHT
— U. S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 12, 2020
the circumstances of the incident remain for the moment unclear, but the tanker seems to have been released at the end of five hours by the iranian army, which had mobilized two warships in the area, according to the Pentagon. This area is the scene of strong tensions since the unilateral withdrawal of the us international agreement on the iranian nuclear in 2018, and the recovery of sanctions by Washington. These tensions peaked in the summer of 2019 with the arrest of several oil tankers by Iran.
Ship of modest size, the M/T Wila flying the flag of liberia and was heading to the united arab Emirates. The iranian army is the last in the world to fly the Sea King, a helicopter of the 1960s american design.
