Website: Al-Qaeda claims Japanese supertanker attack

A militant group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed that a suicide bomber from its organization was responsible for an attack on a Japanese supertanker last Wednesday near the Strait of Hormuz.

"Last Wednesday, after midnight, the martyrdom-seeking hero Ayyub al-Taishan ... blew himself up in the Japanese tanker M.Star in the Strait of Hormuz between the United Arab Emirates and Oman," the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website used by militants.

No independent verification of the statement was immediately available. (Reuters)