RAPPAHANNOCK

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Dubai police: US navy ship Rappahannock did not warn Indian fishermen

DUBAI: Dubai’s police chief has rejected US claims that a navy ship warned Indian fishermen to move away from it before firing and killing one of them after they failed to heed the order, media reported on Thursday. The fisherman died and three others were wounded on Monday when the ship opened fire on their vessel near the port of Jebel Ali off Dubai in the tense waters of the southern Gulf. The “Indian fishermen were not warned to move away by the US Navy,” General Dahi Khalfan said, according to Khaleej Times daily. “The crew … told the Dubai police that they did not move towards the ship and instead attempted to avoid it.” “According to our findings and testimonies of the injured, I believe that they told the truth,” the daily quoted Khalfan as saying. On Tuesday, India urged the UAE to investigate the shooting. Read more: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2012/07/20/dubai-police-us-navy-ship-did-not-warn-indian-fishermen/#ixzz218eaGGnB

US claims Indian vessel was fired after several warnings

In the midst of a probe demanded by India into the deadly US attack on a motorboat in the Persian Gulf that left an Indian fisherman dead, Washington insisted that the vessel was fired upon after it disregarded nonlethal warnings. Both Pentagon and the State department on Tuesday stuck to a statement issued by the US embassy in Delhi that the USNS Rappahannock had “escalated warning measures” before opening fire at the boat carrying Indian fishermen off the UAE coast in the Persian Gulf. The incident is under investigation, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters on Tuesday associating “ourselves with the statement issued by the United States Embassy in Delhi.” Read more at http://www.firstpost.com/india/us-claims-indian-vessel-was-fired-after-several-warnings-381418.html

US Navy Ship Rappahannock fires on boat off Dubai, kills Indian fisherman

A fisherman from Tamil Nadu was killed and three were injured when they were shot at by a US Navy off the coast of Dubai on Monday. Reports from the UAE said the fishermen were shot when they did not heed warnings and approached the naval ship in their small boat. In the incident, one person identified as Sekar, died, while three — Muniraj, Panpuvan and Murugan — were injured and admitted to hospital. The men, all contract labourers from coastal Ramanathapuram district, have been working as fishermen for companies based in Dubai. Senior US Navy official Lt Greg Raelson, spokesperson for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said the personnel on board the USNS Rappahannock issued a series of warnings before firing at the small craft with 50 calibre machine gun near Dubai’s Jebel Ali port. The matter, he added was under investigation. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-navy-ship-fires-on-boat-off-dubai-kills-indian-fisherman/975575/